


God Bless The Titanic

by Theonewhosawitall



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Dancing, F/M, Heartache, Jealous Adrien Agreste, Jealous Chat Noir, Pain, Rain, Sort Of, multiple balcony scenes, unrequited pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-20 05:34:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 45,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14254095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theonewhosawitall/pseuds/Theonewhosawitall
Summary: Luka is fully aware that Marinette is in love with Adrien. She told him before they got together that her heart belonged to someone else. He doesnt mind. The pain is worth it, or so he says. But neither he or Marinette were prepared for a certain cat entering his hat into the ring. When it comes down to it, which way will Marinette's compass point?





	1. Chapter 1

Marinette had known Rose and Juleka for as long as she could remember. They were good friends. Which was why it confused Marinette when she realised she had never met Luka before. She often heard Juleka talk about her brother, but she never really mentioned his name. Or that he could play guitar. Or those piercing blue eyes of his. Or the way his smirk made them shine. Or how he had brought the purple dye that Juleka used for her hair so he could look like Jagged Stone, but lost a bet to Juleka, so she got to go purple and he had to settle for blue. Marinette only found out any of that the night after the concert. Ivan and Mylene had gone home for movie night, and Adrien had been whisked away at the first chance. He offered Marinette a lift in the limo, but Luka asked her to stay for dinner. Marinette couldn't resist that warm, knowing smile of his. There was something about a musician - especially one who liked Jagged Stone - she just couldn't resist.

"N-no thanks Adrien, I'm gonna stay here and have dinner with Luka. I mean dinner with Juluka - julekua - Juleka! Din-n-n - dinner with Rose and Juleka. And Luka..."

Alya face palmed as Luka chuckled softly. Marinette blushed, but Luka's finger curled around hers and that little smile of him made her bite her lip.

"You are very funny," he said.

She blushed again and muttered a thank you. Alya arched an eyebrow. Adrien looked surprised and a little disappointed, but Marinette was too busy gazing at Luka to notice.

"Oh o-ok then," Adrien tried to hide his confused disappointment but it just muted his voice, "see you on Monday then?"

"Uh huh, Monday, sure," Marinette batted the air like she didn’t care.

That made Adrien feel uncomfortable.

"Bye Luka," he said.

Luka's gaze didn’t leave Marinette. "See you round Adrien."

Despite the new and juicy situation, Nino dragged Alya to the moonlit stroll down the Seine they had been planning, with a threat of leaving her for Chat Noir next time. That left Marinette, Rose, Juleka and Luka at dinner.

"Can you pass the salt please Marinette?"

Marinette lifted a salt shaker marked "pepper" and handed it over to Rose. The twist made her smile. The boat may have been cluttered but the creative chaos was certainly interesting. Kept you on your toes. Luka's hand brushed against the back of hers and she gasped. She heard his velvety chuckle again and her knees buckled.

The mess wasn’t the only thing keeping her on her toes in here.

"Marinette, I'm hungry," Tikki said, softly.

Marinette patted her bag softly to silently reassure her kwami that she had heard her and stood up.

"It’s getting late-"

"Yeh wanna see where your sleeping quarters are?"

Marinette straightened up in surprise. "S-sleeping quarters?"

"You're staying for the sleep over, right Marinette?" Juleka asked.

"Oh, I err, I don’t have any clothes, so I guess I can't," Marinette shrugged.

"Nonsense! Jukela'll have some clothes for ya to borrow!" The captain said.

Marinette shifted uncomfortably, "Really?"

"To be sure Lassy! Yeh need a break from your neatness anyway. Creative mess is always the answer!" Their mother declared.

"Actually, I only have a couple clean shirts and Rose needs them. Sorry," Juleka smiled apologetically.

Rose mirrored her smile, "Sorry Marinette, I was in such a rush to pack for the concert I forgot about the sleep over."

Marinette fought her grin, "Oh, that’s fine, don’t even worry about it, I'll just head ho-"

"You can borrow some of my clothes if you want," Luka offered suddenly.

Her palms clammed up as she turned to look at him. "I - I - I can?"

"Sure. I'll bet they look cuter on you anyway," Luka smiled.

She looked down as she blushed. "T-t-thanks..."

"Perfect solution! Luka, take missy here to your cabin and find her some clothes. Girlies, let me show yeh how we clean our plates on Liberty!"

There was something unsettling about the gleam in her eyes that made Marinette wonder exactly how they did clean plates on the Liberty. But Luka's hand came to rest on her shoulder, and her attention (and the blood in her cheeks) rose.

"Do you remember the way?"

"Um, to your cabin? Yeah, I think so."

"Cool. Lead on then."

Marinette was uncertain about this for whatever reason, but she did as she was told. He allowed her to wander to whatever cabin she thought was his, without any help. They wandered past Juleka's - that one she knew - and past the bathroom - she didn’t like that one much, it was the very definition of "water closet" - finally reaching his cabin right at the back. As she pushed the door open, Luka smiled at her.

"Good, you know the way. Now you'll always know where to find me," he smirked.

"Marinette..." Tikki whispered.

"But where can I find you?" Luka asked.

Marinette could have tried flirting back or being suave. It was certainly easier to do with Luka than Adrien, although it seemed like fooling around with Chat Noir made it easier too... Anyway, there were more important things at stake. Namely Tikki.

"Anywhere that there are cookies. Do you happen to h-have any?" She asked hopefully.

"Cookies?" Luka opened a drawer under his bed to reveal a stash of junk food, and grinned at her, "Any preference to type?"

Marinette grabbed the first thing she could and dropped it into her bag. Tikki wasn’t thrilled but she was too hungry to care. She made a note to restock on cookies the moment they got back to the bakery. Meanwhile Marinette nerves caused her to ramble.

"No. I mean, chocolate chip usually, but I grew up in a bakery, so I don’t really have a preference for what kind of cookie or cookies at all come to think of it. All my life I've been surrounded by sweet treats, so I don’t really worry about..."

Luka cut off her rambling by picking up his guitar and resting it on his knee.

"the..."

He strummed the first strings as a kind of test.

"difference..."

She fell silent as he began to mimic the high pitched, slightly springy rhythm that her heart was beating out. At times it seemed like her chest and his guitar were conversing in Morse code, and even Luka and Marinette didn’t know what it said. They didn’t need to know the words in order to feel it.

Luka closed his eyes when he played, but as he hit the last note, and he twirled the plectrum in his fingers, he opened them. Marinette had turned into a puddle on his bed, slightly gaping with awe and affection. He smirked.

"You're a special girl Marinette. I don't know anyone else who can pick a lock with a plectrum, or brave enough to hunt down Ladybug to save us. You're smart and sweet and kind and so very funny... When Juleka told me what you did to make sure she was in the school photos, I was impressed. But today, I'm more than impressed. I'm in awe. You're wonderful. In every way."

Marinette felt her heart flutter. She wasn't sure even Adrien could make her cheeks any redder. Luka reached across his bed to brush his fingers against her hand gently.

"You’re going to make someone very, very happy one day Marinette Dupain-Chang. I'm hoping, in the meantime, you might consider letting a crummy guitar player see what that could be like?"

Marinette bowed her head and gulped hard. "You're not a crummy guitar player Luka. You're wonderful too. I never would have escaped today if it wasn't for you..."

"Is that a yes?" Luka asked.

Marinette stared at the floor and closed her eyes. "I'm in love with someone else..."

"Adrien?"

"How did-"

Her eyes were wide as she raised her head to stare at him. He just shrugged with that mysterious little smirk of his. He wasn’t that much older than her, and yet he seemed to be infinitely wiser...

"Juleka told me. Everyone in your class has a bet on when he’s going to notice you," He confessed.

Marinette frowned. "They do?"

"I'm no teen model. I can't offer you an internship with the number one designer in the city. I can't even offer you a chance to meet Jagged Stone-"

"I already have. He’s pretty cool," she smiled.

It was Luka's turn to let his jaw drop in awe. "You met Jagged Stone?"

"I designed his album cover," she confessed.

She smiled. It was something she was defiantly proud of, but it always felt a little embarrassing to bring it up. I mean, she was Ladybug. It wasn’t that impressive to her, given the comparison she had. And she wasn’t used to bragging. She didn’t like it. Luka seemed to be far more in love with her now than he had seconds ago.

"Oh wow. You're way cooler than I thought you were... I don't think what I was going to say will cut it now..."

"What were you going to say?" She asked.

He hung his head, muttering, "It's dumb now."

"Tell me! Please?" Her fingers curled around his on the bed.

"Um... ok..." Luka stared at their hands for a moment, before shaking his love-struck awe from his mind. "I can't offer you a chance to meet your designer heroes, or your musical heroes _again_ , and apparently you already know the city's heroes well enough to track them down in an akuma attack -" Luka paused to laugh and shake his head, "You already have a crazy amount of people who can help you achieve your dreams. A crazy amount of people who like you. Like, like-like you. I bet even Chat Noir can’t resist your charms!"

Marinette shrugged, "Well _he's_ never given me cookies."

"These are stale by the way," Tikki grumbled.

Marinette picked up another box to check the date and try to find her a fresher one as Luka continued.

"Look, I know I can’t compete with Jagged Stone or Chat Noir, or even Adrien Agreste, but..." Luka's hand scooped up hers gently, stopping her search before she could find something, "but I notice you Marinette. I can see you. And I like what I see."

Marinette cleared her throat uncertainly. "Luka-"

"I get that your heart belongs to Adrien, but I wanna give you mine. I don’t mind if you break it. It'll be good song writing material. As long as, for a while at least, we both get to be happy. I want to try and make you happy. Please?" He asked, gently.

Marinette's gaze softened on him, but she repeated, "I love Adrien..."

Luka wasn’t deterred, but repeated, quieter, "Please..."

"I don’t wanna hurt you..."

"I give you permission to."

"That doesn’t change anything..."

"You deserve someone who wants to try even if it'll hurt. You deserve someone like me, even if I don’t deserve someone like you..."

Marinette's chest ached. She liked Luka. She did. He was attractive, and kind, and smart, and he seemed devoted to her. On the one hand, she didn’t want to hurt him, but on the other... Around Luka, she didn’t feel like a compass next to a statue. Maybe this was what she needed. Something - someone, more stable...

"What will I tell Alya?" She asked.

"We can work it out together," he offered.

Marinette licked her lips uncertainly. She loved Adrien... didn’t she? Alright she didn’t get to spend much time with him, and she really knew more about his life via the magazine than via him, and she could never manage to talk to him and... and maybe it was all in her head... Maybe she just liked the idea of Adrien Agreste, or what she saw of him back with the umbrella and liked the idea of what they could be together.  
But Luka wasn’t an idea.  
Luka was here. Holding her hand.

"Alright," she decided, feeling her chest swell with nervous determination. "What have we got to lose?"

Luka beamed brighter than he ever had before. There was a certain familiar sunshine in his smile that made Marinette smile too. Maybe she had a type. Maybe Luka fit it. He certainly seemed to fit against her. He wrapped his arms around her to pull her into a hug, and they fit together perfectly. He was tall enough to rest his chin on her head, and she was tiny enough to wrap her arms all the way around his chest and lay her head against his ribs to hear his heart beat. She smiled at the constant thumping. It was warm. It was alive. It was love.

"I'm going to make you the happiest girl in the city Marinette," his voice rumbled through his chest.

She giggled and pulled away as she remembered why they were here. "I still need clothes, Luka."

"If you insist," he winked.


	2. Chapter 2

Alya threw her arms in the air with a cry of frustration. "It’s stupid!"

Nino sighed and repeated, as monotone as last time, "Yes Alya."

"It’s ridiculous!"

"Yes Alya."

"It’s going to end in hurt for both of them! Completely and utterly unnecessary pain!"

"Yes Alya."

"It doesn't change the fact that she’s utterly besotted with Adrien - a boy in her class! Luka does know that right? Everyone else does! Juleka should have told him so he didn’t risk getting hurt! How will he react when he realises that Adrien gets to see her all day every day, and Luka doesn’t? It'd drive me insane! She's going to break his heart. He doesn’t deserve that! I love that girl but what was she thinking?! Its ridiculous right?!"

Nino sighed. He stopped walking and turned to rest a hand on Alya's shoulder. She turned to face him too, with a highly suspicious look in her eyes. He could tell she was going to argue with anything he had to say anyway, so he might as well be honest.

"Alya... Alya please don't be mad, and please don’t interrupt before I get to finish," he said.

"What did you do?!" She demanded.

"I knew he was going to ask," Nino admitted.

" **WHAT**?!"

Alya's voice rattled a nearby glass panel and set off a car alarm. In the distance a flock of pigeons took off in fear of the sudden explosive noise. Everyone around them look over in alarm, but Nino acted as if he hadn’t heard it.

"He likes her Alya. He actually really likes her. Marinette is crazy about Adrien, but Adrien doesn’t give her the time of day. I know you want them to get together, but Marinette deserves someone who loves her now. Not potentially after another year of heart ache," he explained.

"What if she and Adrien are destined to be together?" Alya demanded, her hands on her hips.

"Then Luka and Marinette won’t last. Luka told me he liked Marinette, and I warned him she liked someone else, and he didn’t care. He said a moment of happiness is worth a life time of pain," Nino said.

Alya scoffed, folding her arms grumpily, "That’s stupid."

"It’s not your choice," Nino reminded her firmly. "Marinette is her own person. Adrien and Marinette are my best friends. I would love it if they could be happy together, but right now, they can’t. And seeing one of my best friends - your best friend - hurt... how can you stand it?"

Alya wrinkled her nose. Her frown was already set in but, if it were possible, it would have deepened. It hurt to see her best friend ache because of their other friend. Both of them wanted nothing more than to stop their friends hurting, but not like this. She wanted them to be together. Although looking at Nino, it was clear it had gotten too much for him too. All three of them were aching with fustration, and maybe, for a while at least, Luka could give yhem some relief... Her shoulders sagged. That was when Nino knew some of that anger had turned into guilt, and he had a chance to ease her into this, for all their sakes.

"Besides Luka has Juleka. Marinette isn't the kind of girl to cheat on a guy, but if she starts getting restless, Juleka can warn Luka so they can do damage control. Or maybe - hang on for this one - maybe the dude is exactly what Marinette is looking for. Maybe _they're_ fated to be together instead. Isn't that possible?"

At first Alya had been considering this, but not now. Now that Nino dared to suggest all the effort they’d gone through to bring Marinette and Adrien together was for the wrong man, Alya was going off of Luka again with a scowl.

"How come you can believe without a shadow of doubt that Ladybug and Chat Noir will end up together, but not Marinette and Adrien?" She challenged.

Nino shrugged. "Because whatever higher power made them superheroes knew they would need to be as comfortable together as yin and yang. Someone super chill, and someone super dramatic will always end up together to balance themselves out."

"Like Luka and Marinette," Alya sighed.

"Like you and me," Nino smirked. Then he elbowed her gently and pointed. "Look at them... they look so happy..."

A little way ahead of them, Marinette and Luka were at the bottom of the steps leading to school. Their fingers were woven together, and Marinette kept looking at him like there was nothing else around them. Luka smiled every time she did. She was standing one step up from him, so they were the same height, and he leaned in a little so their faces were only inches apart. Her cheeks were so red they could see them from here. Luka laughed, making his hair bounce. Luka pulled back from Marinette, but she pulled him back. It was Luka's turn to blush. Marinette planted a kiss on his lips that turned Luka's face scarlet. He melted into it though, wrapping his arms around her to pull her in. His hand tangled in her hair for a moment. Suddenly she broke away and buried her head in his shoulder, blushing hard. Luka stepped back at the force but laughed brightly before adjusting his arms to hug her properly. Marinette fit against him like two spoons.

Alya sighed. Seeing Marinette smile like that made Alya’s chest ease for the first time in a long time. She wasnt stressed out and twisted up with pressure to help Marinette get together with Adrien, like she so desperately wanted. Marinette’s beautiful smile was something that always filled her with relief. Maybe Luka wouldn’t be a problem...

They were still there, hugging, when Adrien stepped out of his car. He was smiling, and waved, but his smile faded and his hand drooped when no response came.

"Speaking of damage control," Alya muttered.

"On it," Nino said.

"Morning Marinette," Adrien repeated.

Marinette suddenly looked up as if she hadn’t noticed him there. Luka smirked to himself, keeping one hand around her waist at all times, to ease himself. Adrien seemed unsettled by it. That was victory enough for Luka. Right now anyway.

"Hey Adrien, how was your weekend?" She smiled.

Adrien frowned at how tight Luka's grip on Marinette was, but she didn’t seem to mind, "Um, pretty cool, how was yours?"

"Actually, it was awesome, right Lukey?" She smiled.

Adrien frowned deeper. "Lukey?"

"Any time with you is awesome DC," Luke smiled.

She looked away, blushing again, and muttered "Stop!"

"Aww she’s embarrassed. No need to be. Even Jagged's agent said you were adorable!" Luka grinned.

"Jagged Stone's agent said you were adorable?" Adrien repeated in awe.

"She said _we_ made a _cute_ couple. She never said adorable!" Marinette insisted.

Something strange was happening to Adrien. Days before he had decided he liked Luka and was thrilled at the prospect of a new friend. Right now though, he had a strange and powerful urge to punch the boy. That word made time stop, and this urge deepen.

"C-c-couple?" He repeated.

"Yeah, couple. We're dating, right DC," Luka pulled Marinette closer if that was possible.

"When did - when did that happen?" Adrien asked.

"After the concert, when you went home, Juleka asked if I wanted to stay for the sleepover, but I didn’t have any clothes so-"

"She borrowed mine. Have you ever seen Marinette in a Jagged Stone shirt two sizes too big for her? She’s adorable!"

Marinette laughed, and Adrien got to see a flirty teasing side of her that he had never seen before. Yet it seemed familiar. The way she leaned to boop Luka's nose - "What about you and your secret Ladybug shrine?! That’s adorable!"

"Ladybug... shrine..."

It was one thing taking Marinette, but taking his lady was an entirely different thing. The green in his eyes blazed to match the burning in his chest. He knew this jealously. Cats didn’t share. But Marinette wasn’t his. He didn’t understand why he felt such a steering pain when she looked at Luka like that. And then Luka blushed, and her expression changed to something a little more love struck, and he felt his heart get singe.

"It’s not a _shrine_!" Luka argued, "I like Ladybug. She’s brave and beautiful and creative and intelligent and she reminds me of someone else I know."

He leaned so close to Marinette their noses practically touched, but her heart beat hard anxiously and she felt a need to throw him off her scent.

"I'm not Ladybug," she lied.

"No, you’re better," he smirked.

"No, you’re not," Adrien snarled darkly.

Marinette turned to look at him in surprise. She looked a little hurt. Immediately Adrien's expression changed to surprise as he began to back track.

"I didn't mean that!" He said.

"Bit mean dude," Luka said.

"No - I just mean - um - I just mean that no one is better than Ladybug!" Adrien stammered.

At that point Nino finally made an appearance. "Never fear, damage control is here!"

Adrien almost collapsed against his friend when he came to his rescue. Nino was ready to sweep everything aside by changing the subject entirely.

"Morning Nino," Marinette smiled.

"Morning Mari. Nice shirt," he grinned.

"Thanks, it's mine," Luka smirked.

"I was with Luka this morning, he leant me a shirt and made me breakfast because he’s the best boyfriend in the world," Marinette cooed.

Adrien clenched his fist as she leaned over to kiss Luka's cheek. "Um-"

Thankfully Nino was there to interrupt, "Err, I'm right here. I'm the best boyfriend Alya ever had!"

"No, you're not!" Alya called.

Nino gagged. He swung around dramatically, clasping his chest in offence. " **WHAT**?!"

"Just playing," Alya chuckled. She kissed his cheek gently, "You know I love you."

Nino leaned against her as their fingers knitted together. Under his breath he said, "I nearly had a heart attack dude."

"Sorry babe," Alya apologised.

Marinette glanced over at the clock on the school building and turned to Luka. "I gotta get to class, you should get going. I don’t want you being late to lessons."

"It home schooling, I'm never late," Luka said. Before Marinette argued that he should never be late anyway, he pulled a guitar plectrum from his pocket, and a necklace chain came dangling off of it. "Here, take this. I made it so there's no chance you'll forget our plans, because I know what you’re like."

Marinette gasped, "Its awesome Lukey, thank you!"

"Plans?" Adrien hated himself for asking.

"Mari and I are going to sit in on a Jagged Stone interview tonight. Aren't we sweetie?" Luka smiled.

"Jagged... Jagged Stone?" Adrien choked.

"Mari pulled some strings with someone she baby sits for -"

"How is Manon?" Alya interrupted for Adrien's sake.

"A pain, but a cute one," Marinette shrugged.

"Worth it for a private Jagged Stone audience, right?" Luka smiled.

"Right," Adrien gritted his teeth.

Marinette tilted her head at him, concern in her eyes, "You ok Adrien?"

Adrien stormed away declaring, "I'm going to class."

"I'll come too!" Nino called.

Adrien's night life as Chat Noir made him swift and agile. Nino found it difficult to keep up with him without becoming seriously out of breath. He still tried though. Adrien needed him.

"Hey man, you ok?" Nino asked.

"Fine!" Adrien spat.

Nino knew he wasn't fine. Marinette was a wonderful girl and she had treated Adrien like a God. Now she didn't even stutter when he was near. That, AND she had managed to turn a TV interview into a date. A date. With Luka. To see Jagged Stone. Adrien had seen Marinette and Jagged Stone interact, he acted like an affectionate, if clueless, Godfather to her. She would present Luka to Jagged, and he would take one look at those calloused guitar playing fingers, test his skills, and dub Luka as "worthy of Marinette".

That made his chest ache angrily.

Adrien wanted to be worthy of Marinette!

Adrien stopped dead in the middle of the path, his eyes wide with realisation. The slow dawning of this discovery gave Nino time to get his breath back.

The way Nino's hand bounced on Adrien's shoulder made Adrien realise that his best friend had known something he didn’t for a long, long time. Adrien didn’t know what else to say. It all seemed so obvious now. There was only one possible reaction to all this.

"Oh... shit..."


	3. Chapter 3

Chat Noir didn't end up visiting Marinette that night. It was late, and the moon was already out when he left. Instead he ran laps around the city skyline, trying to keep an eye out for Ladybug as he cleared his head. It was a good thing he didn't go to Marinette too, because Marinette already had one surprise visitor on her balcony.   
Tikki dove into her bag when a small tapping sound came from the balcony. Marinette's heart beat hard. Only one person came to her balcony this late, and if he found out who she was, Luka could be in real danger. However, when she looked up, her eyes widened in surprise. Luka's shadow waved across her window and she recognised that messy hair instantly. It was easy. There were only two people in Paris with hair that bad, and this one didn’t have cat ears. Marinette gasped in delight and immediately chambered up to the skylight to meet him.

"Luka!" Her hushed voice was tinged with laughter and excitement.

Luka looked up sheepishly, a little disappointed to have woken her up before he planned. Then his eyes widened to take in her appearance. Since it was so late, she had already changed into her red spotty Ladybug pyjama bottoms and her white pyjama shirt with "I heart ladybug" in spots across her chest, but most importantly, she'd taken out her hair. It now hung free and loose around her shoulders.   
When she had stayed for the sleepover, Luka had been wrapped up in how cute Marinette looked in his spare Jagged Stone shirt that was too big for her to notice her hair. When it fell free and framed her face in the moonlight over Paris, she looked breath-taking. Especially with that bright beam that lit her face.

"What are you doing here?!"

Luka pushed away his surprise and gripped tightly to the railings. He was still on the wrong side of them. Now, trying to pretend to be casual, he grinned at her as he leaned on top of them.

"Can’t a guy drop in on his girlfriend just to surprise her?"

She leaned towards him too. "I'm very surprised."

"Good surprised?" He asked.

"Thrilled," she purred.

Luka smiled at her, blue eyes shining with affection. Their faces were inches away from each other now, so he could reach forward and kiss her softly, gentle and affectionate. Luka clung a little tighter to the railings as his guitar slipped down his back and the neck bumped against his calf. The weight dragged him back, so Marinette pulled back slightly too.

"How did you find me? I never told you where I live," she said.

"Juleka did. And kicked me out of our cabin. Apparently, she can talk about Rose all she likes but I can't talk about you because it's annoying," Luka rolled his eyes.

"Well it is two am," Marinette pointed out.

"Can I help it if your wonderful jokes keep replaying in my mind and making me laugh?" Luka grinned.

"I'm not that funny," Marinette smirked.

Luka pulled himself forward, closer to her again. "You’re cute enough to keep me awake."

"You're cuter. Its cold out here though. Come in," she said.

Marinette stepped back to gesture a hand towards the open skylight so that he could head down into the bedroom. Luka's eyes momentarily widened and then he shook his head.

"Oh no. No, your parents wouldn't like that."

Marinette raised an eyebrow. "My parents wouldn't like you climbing the edge of the build to invade my balcony."

Luka climbed over the railings to perch on top of it, clinging on for support. "But its safer here. when a boy and a girl are dating, there’s temptations, and I don't want you to feel pressured by me being in your room."

Marinette immediately turned pink, but she looked down at her shoes and muttered, "I don't feel pressured."

Luka weakened his grip on the railings, so he could reach out and take her hand, but the weight of the guitar pulling him back made his stomach drop so he latched back on again.

"I don't wanna risk it," he said.

Marinette smirked and folded her arms, still looking at her feet, "We've been in your room alone before."

"That’s different," Luka shrugged.

"How?" She smirked.

"I share my cabin with my sister. You’re an only child in a private room. Juleka is a risk, no one is a risk when it comes to yours," he said, pointedly.

Marinette didn't take the opportunity to tell him that Tikki was going to be there at all times anyway, because she couldn’t. If Hawkmoth got any inkling that someone knew who she really was, he might send an akuma after them, and manipulate them into using that information to find out who she was himself. Then everyone she knew would be in danger.  
Marinette shuddered at the thought.   
Luka's hand ran across hers, suddenly pulling her from her thoughts. Without a word he pulled off his hoodie and draped it over she shoulders, covering her Ladybug themed pyjamas. The hoodie was about two sizes too big for her, and the sleeves flapped at the ends, completely covering her hands.

"Let me warm you up," he smiled.

His hand curled against her cheek momentarily before yanking up the hood, so it completely covered her eyes, and her mouth became a small circle of surprise. To see her swamped by fabric melted his heart a little.   
With the extra fabric on her sleeve she pushed the hood up out of her eyes, she looked up at him, unimpressed. The moon gleamed in the reflection of her iris and made her eyes glint like sapphires. Luka's jaw fell open.

Marinette blushed as he stared, "Aren't you cold?"

"Not with you to keep me warm," he said.

"Stop," she smiled sheepishly to the ground.

"You’re beautiful Marinette," Luka said, with deadpan seriousness.

Marinette squealed and squirmed, pulling the hoodie over her eyes to try and hide her crimson cheeks. Luka grinned. She was adorable when she was embarrassed.

"I love your pyjamas. Red is a good colour on you. Who could have known?" he winked.

Marinette tried hard to stop her cheeks from being as crimson as they were by breathing it away like Alya had tried to teach her to do. It didn’t work.

"Ladybug is good on anyone," she muttered.

"She's good with chat noir. Just like you’re good with me," he winked.

"Ladybug and Chat Noir are just friends," Marinette lied.

"Not for long. That cool cat is a flirt if ever I met one," Luka smirked.

For a moment she wrinkled her nose in objection, but instead of voicing that objection, she smirked at him. "Takes one to know one."

"I've only got eyes for you marry-me," Luka said pointedly.

"You prove my point well," Marinette laughed.

"No, I don't need to. You're always right. You're too clever to be wrong. Or you’re creative enough to change the argument to one where you're both right, so everyone wins. You keep everything fair. It's one of the things I love about you."

The sudden genuine warmth in his voice made Marinette's stomach unsettled. She stared at her shoes.

"I know you said you're ok with getting hurt, but I really don’t want to hurt you..."

"Are you breaking up with me already Marinette? It’s only been two and a half weeks," Luka chuckled softly.

Marinette shifted, shaking her head, "No, no, not unless you want to-"

"I don’t," he said,

"Then no. But..."

"But?"

Luka laid a hand on her waist to pull her closer, and she ended up pressed against his chest. She had to raise her head to meet his gaze. There wasn’t room not to.

"But I like you Luka. I really, really like you. If I Could give you my heart I would, but it belongs to-"

His free hand raised to press a finger softly against her lips. "Shh..."

Marinette was surprised into silence, her eyes wide with awe. Even when his hand moved from her lips to her other waist on the other side. He dropped his tone a little.

"Mari, just because we're not destined to last doesn't mean it won't be amazing. A firework is over in seconds but beautiful all the while right?"

"I... worry..." Marinette said quietly to his chest. "I worry about you getting too attached."

Luka sighed and laid his for head against hers, so his fringe flapped on top of hers. "Why are you always thinking about the future, ma-ma-Marinette? Can't you just enjoy the moment?"

She shrugged sheepishly, "I tend to trip up and ruin the moment. Like I'm doing now I guess..."

His hand moved up to her shoulder to run his fingers through her hair gently under the hood, "Mari, if you feel pressured to be with me, or you're not happy anymore, you can tell me. You _need_ to tell me. You can't ruin a moment by being concerned."

"Are you sure?" She asked nervously.

"Will you let me serenade you to prove it?" He asked.

"Seriously? You can all this way, this late, to sing to me?" She smirked.

"Music has no time limit my little cookie monster. And I knew you'd be awake. You're always awake very late according to Rose, and that sleepover," He teased.

She giggled a little. "What are you going to sing?"

He gestured to the sun lounger behind her, "May I sit?"

"Of course," she stepped aside.

Luka pulled his guitar onto his lap and unzipped it. Marinette leaned against the railings, watching him unpack his acoustic guitar with interest. He pushed his hair out of his face as he glanced back into the bag. Marinette saw as his face fell.

His words were almost too low for her to hear, "Oh no..."

"What? What’s wrong?" She asked.

"I must have dropped my pick on the way here, and I didn’t bring another one - I'm such an idiot..."

He sighed, his shoulders sagging. Marinette's face fell as she couldn't think how to help him. That’s when Tikki came into play. Tikki waved from the skylight to steal her attention and pointed to her own neck. Marinette frowned. Instinctively her hand pressed against her chest where her kwami was pointing. Her fingers twisted against the pick he'd gifted her on his necklace. She grinned. Tikki smirked back. She ducked back down to the safety of the bedroom. Marinette held out the necklace on the chain to Luka.

"Here."

Luka looked up and smiled, "Are you sure?"

"It was yours first. I'd like to see how well you can play with it," she said.

"Then I'll do my best to live up to your standard," he said.

"You did that when you came climbing onto my balcony in the middle of the night," she smirked.

"Climbing _up_ is fine. Climbing _down_ I'm worried about," he admitted.

"Don't worry, I've done it a million times, I'll help. Play first though, I want to hear what’s in your heart this time," she laid a hand against his chest, chuckling.

"All you have to do is laugh. That’s all that’s in my heart right now," he purred.

Marinette blushed hard and pulled the hood down over her eyes to hide, "Just play!"

Luka laughed at how cute she was, and thread the chain through the hoop on the pick so he could remove it. He twisted the tuning knobs to make sure everything sounded fine and strummed gently. Marinette stayed by the railings sitting by them to watch Luka play. As the melody soared softly through the air, and drifted over to wrap around her, her heart also soared. With the quiet melody to settle her and the plush lining of the hoodie keeping her warm, the weight of the so far sleepless night hit her all at once. Exhausted, she wandered over to sit beside Luka. The warm ringing of the strings buzzed in her chest as she rested her head against his knee. Each soft chord urged the yawns out of her. Her eyelids were heavier than they had been all night.   
Marinette had never heard Luka sing, and she hoped he would sing now, but no. She was too tired to ask why, but it didn’t matter. The guitar spoke for both of them. This was a love song. What girl wouldn’t want a love song written just for her?  
After the last few notes rang out, there was a moments silence. Just the quiet ring of the strings, the wind running across them, and the sleepy buzz of Paris below. All was calm.

Marinette raised her head to look up at him, "Shall I help you get down?"

Luka ran a hand across her hood. "No cookie. You’re tired. Go to bed. I can get down alone."

"Are you-" she paused to yawn, "are you sure?"

Luka chuckled. He pulled the drawstrings of her hoodie gently, so the hood tightened around her face. She batted his hand away weakly, and he chuckled.

"I'm sure cookie. Get some rest," he said.

Marinette rubbed her eyes with the flap of her sleeve and nodded. She was too tired to argue. He laid his guitar down to one side and helped her to her feet. She whined a little, but he chuckled and held her up anyway. Marinette ended up standing on her bed with her head out of the skylight, with him on his knees beside her. She peeled off his hoodie and gave it back to him.

"Be warm. Get home safe. Be careful," she warned.

He chuckled and pressed her necklace back into her hand. "I will cookie."

He pulled away, but she held onto his hand to pull him back. When he was close enough she kissed his cheek, and he blushed.

"Be safe," she repeated.

He smiled, his chest warming under her affection, and repeated his promise. Once he closed the skylight and blew her a kiss, he headed to the railings. Marinette yawned again. The melody still drifted around her mind as she settled down in her bed. Tikki chuckled to herself. It was nice to see Marinette get the affection she deserved.

If only it could last.


	4. Chapter 4

Adrien glowered at Luka as he and Marinette came wandering down the street towards the school. They were hand in hand, but Luka was carrying her bags, and she kept bumping against him playfully, just like Ladybug did to him when they were pretending to be together. Adrien felt a flush of guilt when he thought of Ladybug. he was supposed to be in love with her. this new burning desire for Marinette’s affections-

“Um, Adrien?”

Alya’s voice yanked him from his thoughts. He didn’t notice the concern in her tone, but she noticed the bitterness that riddled his.

“What’d you want?”

“you’re in the way,” she pointed out.

Now he noticed his own overreaction. He knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of anger or frustration that was meant to be directed at someone else. He knew he didn’t like it. guilt gripped him again. Alya didn’t deserve that.

“oh… sorry…” he muttered and stepped aside.

Despite the now clear path, Alya didn’t move. “Are you ok?”

“Fine.” Adrien lied too sharply.

Frowning at the glower, Alya turned around to stand beside Adrien and follow his glare. Suddenly everything was beginning to make sense. Marinette and Luka were acting as if they were the only two people in the entire world. it was impressive to Alya that, even though her heart belonged to someone else, Marinette seemed to be an affectionate and dedicated girlfriend. Then again this was Marinette. She was dedicated to everything she did.

“Don’t worry, Marinette and Luka are like the titanic,” Alya said.

Adrien frowned. “what?”

“they’re magnificent and they make everyone wonder about how awesome it would be if they were permanent, but they’re on a path to disaster. It won’t last. don’t let it get to you,” she explained.

“Why – why would I care?! She’s my friend, just a friend, I want her to be happy right? I just want her – my friend – I just want her to be happy! I just – I just-” he watched as she laughed her magical laugh just for Luka, and how she leaned up on her tip toes to reach his cheek. His chest heaved at the amount of joy between them, and his thoughts trailed away from him, “I just want her…”

Alya squeezed his upper arm gently. Another place, another time, she might have switched sides and chosen to help him sabotage this new relationship to try and get the two of them together. but Nino had gotten into her head, and she had lost her constant need for drama. She didn’t want to throw Marinette and Adrien into a relationship built on manipulation. That was just another Titanic. Plus right now Marinette was growing into a confident young woman, and Adrien was seeing the side of her that Alya always did. And she was happy. Alya wasn’t going to risk that. not even for another hurting friend.   
Fortunately, she was there for him enough to defend him from a certain blonde brat who couldn’t keep her nose out of anything and was more than a little bitter that her only real friend had gone so utterly gooey over her arch nemesis. Especially now that those feelings weren’t being reciprocated, like they would have been two and a half weeks ago, if Adrien had opened his eyes then!

“Oh please, are you still whining about this girl?! She’s not even that great! If you liked it, you should have put a ring on it when you had the chance. You lost it. move on! No one cares anymore!” Chloe spat.

Adrien scowled. Alya pushed her way between Chloe and Adrien and folded her arms across her chest. The expression on her face was not dissimilar to the glare a mother bear gives someone who gets a little too close to her cub.

“Shove off Chloe!” she snarled.

Chloe ignored her. “Adrien, you’re a model! You can have any girl in Paris! Why are you hung up on that?!”

Alya pushed her back a little so she would be able to cling to Adrien like she usually did. “Seriously Chloe, back off."

"Don’t touch me! You’ll get your gross sappy cooties over me!" Chloe snarled, slapping Alya away.

Alya folded her arms again, “What are you more jealous of Chloe, the fact Marinette has a sweet guy doting on her every whim, ready to be with her even though he knows it isn’t going to last, or that she has Adrien too? Or are you just jealous that the only boy who’s pretending to have a crush on you is only doing it so his parents don’t find out he’s gay?”

Chloe's expression darkened, “You’ll regret that Alya.”

“I’m so scared,” Alya said, sarcastically.

Adrien rolled his eyes. He'd had enough of Chloe constantly bickering with his friends, and constantly going after Marinette. If she hadn’t bullied the girl for as long as Nino said she did, maybe she could have been this confident around him from the start. Or - or maybe she was. The e girl who hated him was very confident about it. Maybe he didn't notice because the girl that Nino said had a crush on him was less so because of the crush. Not that Adrien believed she ever had a crush on him. Especially when she looked at Luka like that. But his frustration with Chloe got the better of him.

“Leave her alone Chloe. She’s just looking out for her friends. If you ever get any you’ll understand,” he said sharply.

The brewing heat between the girls vanished as they both whipped round to stare at him. Alya's eyebrows flew up. Chloe stepped back like she'd been electrocuted. Both of them stared at him like he'd burst into flames. Chloe's hand moved to her chest and clutched above her heart, visibly hurt.

“A-a-Adrien?” she stammered.

Alya's gaze turned to Chloe. She was so hurt that she didn’t care if Alya saw her vulnerable side. That concerned Alya more than anything else. Marinette was Chloe’s favourite victim, but she and Alya butted heads enough that they could hate each other with ease, and yet seeing her like this - hurt by the only person she actually cared about - Alya almost wanted to defend her.

Adrien shook his head and turned away from Marinette, “come on Alya, Nino’ll be waiting.”

Alya froze for a moment, watching him storm away like there was a dark cloud above him. Alya gulped. Chloe said nothing as she watched Alya follow him.

Marinette happened to look up in time to see Alya's worried expression before she turned to follow Adrien. Without saying goodbye to Luka, she hurried after Alya.

"Alya! wait up!”

"Cookie!" Luka called in surprise as she left.

Alya stopped to glance back at her, then back at Adrien. He didn’t stop. Alya licked her lips. It was time to choose between her best friend and who would definitely be best man at her wedding. She knew who needed her more...

Alya held a hand out to stop Marinette chasing her. “Um, it’s ok Mari, I’m gonna hang with Adrien today. I think he needs me.”

Marinette’s face filled with concern. “Oh, is everything ok?”

“sure. It’s probably just problems at home. Don’t worry about it,” Alya forced a smile.

Marinette persevered, “but if he needs us-”

“Go say bye to Luka girl, Nino’s waiting for us."

“Oh… ok…”

Marinette stepped backwards uncertainly, clearly uncomfortable with being left out, which hurt Alya, but she couldn’t tell her what was happening because shed ask why, and when she found out why, shed feel even worse. That wasn’t fair. She didn’t look thrilled right now. She wandered back to Luka and he tilted his head at her again.

"Everything ok?" He asked.

"Adrien seems a little... off..." Marinette glanced uncertainly towards the school again.

"Oh." Luka muttered.

Marinette looked back to him, and she looked guilty. "Sorry, should I not talk about Adrien?"

"Adrien is someone you care about. I wanna know about people you care about cookie," Luka shrugged.

"Just not him?" She asked quietly.

"Not constantly," he said, pointedly.

"Sorry," she sighed.

Marinette looked down at her shoes as she did. Luka bit his lip guiltily. He didn’t mean to make her feel bad. Now he felt bad. Luka reached out to rub both of her arms to pull her a little closer. He didn’t know much about Adrien considering how defensive he was about him, but from what he remembered from the one and only time he met Adrien he was a good guy. Specifically, he was a piano player. They were bonded over their music. If he wanted to keep Marinette close he had to press that bond. Fortunately, music was easier to bond with than words.

"How's his piano playing coming along?" He asked.

"I don’t know, I haven't really spoken to him recently... maybe that’s it, maybe I've been a neglectful friend!" Marinette gasped.

Luka laughed, "A neglectful friend? You? I don’t believe you could do anything neglectful."

"You'd be surprised," Marinette sighed.

Luka pulled her closer so her forehead rested against his chest and she sighed heavily. He chuckled and kissed her head.

"If you feel like that there's an easy way to fix it. Go be the wonderful friend everyone knows you are," he whispered.

"Alya says he doesn't want me right now," she sighed.

"More fool him because you’re not just a friend. You're a best friend," he smirked.

Marinette grinned and nuzzled her head against his chest affectionately until her ear ended up pressed against his heart, listening to each skipped beat. Her smile warmed as she closed her eyes.

"Dork."

Meanwhile Alya threw her bag on her desk and moved to sit in Nino's empty seat beside Adrien. Adrien frowned as he looked up at her in confusion. Alya grinned back at him.

"What do you want Alya?" He sighed.

"You need to chill," Alya said.

Adrien sighed again, dropping his head, "I know. I'm sorry I was in the way-"

"I don't care what you say to me Adrien. You can try and hurt me but I know you’re just mad and need a place to vent. I get that. Be as cruel to me as you like," Alya shrugged.

"Why?" Adrien frowned.

"Because if you take it out on me, you won't attack Nino like you just did to Chloe," Alya said, pointedly.

"She was being cruel!" Adrien argued.

"No worse than usual! Chloe will always be a misery but Marinette and I will always stand up to her," Alya said.

"What’s your point Alya?" Adrien sighed.

"You're unnecessarily angry because you’re hurting. Why?" She asked.

"No offence Alya but I don't wanna talk about it," he said.

"No offence Adrien, but I do," she said.

Adrien groaned, "Alya-"

Alya ignored his groaning and pressed on, "Marinette is happy right now. She hasn’t been happy for a long time because she's in love with someone who doesn’t love her back."

"Loves who?" He asked.

"Doesn’t matter. What matters is that Luka makes her happy. Even if it isn’t meant to last," she said.

"I'm not jealous. Unless I'm jealous that she's got someone and I don’t. It’s not jealousy. Not really. I don’t want Marinette. Not like that. But I'm alone and I like a girl and I don’t know how to tell her..." Adrien's sad frown suddenly grew with confusion and irritation, "why did I tell you that? Father always says never to tell anyone anything and I never do, why did I tell you that?"

"I'm a reporter and a friend, I'm easy to talk to," Alya shrugged.

Adrien rolled his eyes. He was definitely going to be best man at her and Nino's wedding - or was she going to be the maid of honour at his and Marinette's? His and Marinette’s?! His stomach churned guiltily.

"Look, Adrien, you’re not the first guy to realise his crush after she starts dating someone else. It’s the boyfriend syndrome. The moment someone else points out everything great about her, you wonder why you didn’t notice them before-"

"I did notice them."

Alya stopped dead at the interruption, her following point instantly discredited. "Huh?"

"I noticed them. All of them!" Adrien insisted, "Marinette's amazing. She's incredibly smart, and so _so_ brave, and she's determined and dedicated and loyal and funny, and she's amazing at video games and awesome at baking - she’s the best..."

Alya stammered in shock at this new news. All the time they spent creating nonsense schemes to try and make Adrien see her for how amazing she really was - to make her see how amazing she really was - wasted! That godawful (for both parties) pressured interview with Nathanael about why he'd fallen for her, and the worse one with Nino that almost caused him and Alya to break up, were pointless! She was outraged.

"Why didn't you tell her that?!" Alya demanded.

"What are you talking about? I tell her she’s awesome all the time!" Adrien said.

"When?!"

"Every time I see how awesome she is!" He insisted stubbornly, "Every time she stands up for Nathanael or Rose against Chloe, every time she stays behind to help Ivan with his maths, every time she brings in macaroons and makes sure you always get the last one because you mean so much to her... Marinette is an amazing person. I tell her all the time. She never seemed to believe me..."

Alya frowned sympathetically. If anyone understood the frustration of Marinette refusing to believe just how amazing she was, it was Alya. She reached out a hand and patted Adrien’s shoulder gently.

"If you need Nino let me know. I'll make sure he's free for you," she said.

"Thanks Alya. I'm sorry I'm useless at this kind of thing," Adrien said.

Alya shrugged with a smirk, "We're all helpless when it comes to love." She glanced up as Marinette came skipping in on cloud nine. Alya's face fell. "Some more than others."

Adrien raised his head when Marinette came skipping in too. Immediately he groaned. Alya squeezed his shoulder gently and Adrien realised how grateful he was to have her. Sometimes it was hard to remember, especially when he had to take off his tail to tie it to her like a lead and march her to safety so she didn’t die trying to get footage for her blog again. She was a stubborn one, that was for sure. But she was kind and loyal and his friend. And she made his best friend happy. He was lucky to have her.

At lunchtime Nino grabbed Adrien and pulled him to one side so they could have a conversation away from the girls. The girls were busy on the other side of the room. Both of them were joining Rose and Juleka's makeup circle to help Mylene prepare for a date with Ivan. That gave the boys ample time to talk alone.

"Alya said you needed me?" Nino said.

Adrien blinked in surprise and glanced back at Alya. He caught her eye for a moment and she smiled before turning back to the girls. He really was lucky to have her. Then he felt Plagg moving in his pocket and he remembered his promise. His chest ached again.

"Nino, what'd you do if you wanted to talk to someone but you promised someone else you wouldn’t go near them?" Adrien asked.

"Who's your dad banning you from being friends with this time?" Nino sighed.

Adrien panicked a little as he tried to remember the name of a girl, any girl, to throw Nino off the scent. The only names that came to his mind were those of the girls around them, and Nino would ask why he wouldn’t just talk to them at school, so it couldn’t be any of them, and it couldn’t be ladybug...

A stroke of genius, "Um, you don’t know her."

Nino's eyebrows rose, " _her_? You're not keeping a secret crush from me are you dude?"

"What?! No! Of course not! I can’t! I can’t love anyone else, you know I only have eyes for-"

Nino cut him off with an impatient groan, " _Dude_! You gotta give up the bug bro! She’s only got eyes for the cat, it'll end in heartbreak."

Adrien shrugged, trying not to smirk at his friend’s ignorance, "Maybe. Maybe a moment of happiness will be worth the pain."

"You sound like Luka," Nino snorted.

Adrien's head whipped upright urgently. "Huh?"

Nino gulped at the fire in his eyes and shook his head, "Doesn’t matter, who's the girl?"

Adrien’s heart beat hard in alarm. "You don't know her."

"Well you'd better not be keeping her secret! Best friends are supposed to tell each other everything!" Nino warned pointedly.

Adrien didn’t want to lie to Nino any more than he had to, and there was only one girl he knew that Nino defiantly didn’t. "I know her from fencing."

"What’s her name?"

"Her name?"

"She does have a name, right?"

"Y-yeah, of course! Her name is, um, her name is Kagami!"

Adrien swore inwardly when her name left his lips. There was no way he could ask Kagami to lie for him, so he could never let her find out what he'd just said. But that could be dealt with later. If he was lucky, they'd never even have to meet. Besides, Nino looked thrilled Adrien had moved on from his Ladybug obsession.

"Cool name! What's she like?" He asked.

"She's..." she was a very private person. She wouldn’t want Adrien telling Nino - a stranger to her - anything about her without her consent... Well Adrien didn’t want to risk it. "does it matter? My father won't let me talk to her, why bother mentioning it?"

Nino sighed. "Dude at some point you're gonna have to stand up to your dad. One day you're gonna have to stand in front of him and say you've been unfairly controlling lives that don't belong to you, and the hole you've caused in me can't be filed or fixed by throwing money at it! Not to mention -"

Nino was growing annoyed and his voice was getting louder as he angered himself. Adrien reached out a hand to squeeze Nino's shoulder to warn him to simmer down.

"Dude. I'm not saying any of that to my father," Adrien said, firmly. "He wouldn't listen to it any way."

Nino scoffed and shook his head bitterly. "Your dad sucks."

"He's the only family I have," Adrien shrugged.

"Wrong - He's the only blood you have!" Nino argued firmly, "Family isn't defined by blood. I'm your family. So's Alya and Marinette. We love you dude. Don't forget that."

Adrien smiled for a moment, but his gaze turned back to the girls as Marinette tried to balance on the bench the others were sitting on, and almost immediately fell off, tipping it over as she did. When the girls leapt up, the laughter echoed over to the boys. For a moment his smile grew, and then it vanished with an aching chest.

“I think Mari might already have forgotten. We haven't spoken since she started dating Luka," he sighed.

"Then talk to her. She won't bite," Nino said.

"You think I should talk to her?"

"No duh. Dude, this is Marinette we're talking about. Even when I had a crush on her she was willing to help me find love. She'll help you easily."

Adrien's eyebrow rose. "Help me find love? Hmmm..."


	5. Chapter 5

Marinette was sitting in the park, quietly sketching potential designs for merchandise for when the Kitten Corner got big. Her mind was wandering between Luka and Adrien, wondering if they would both appreciate the effort she was putting into it. Then her mind turned to Chat Noir. Unaware that her partner was up on the Eiffel Tower above her, she giggled at the idea of him in one of these shirts. With that in her mind, she added a hood, just to add cat ears to it.  
Adrien wasn't allowed to follow Marinette because he promised Plagg he wouldn’t, but he wanted to see her smile. Chat Noir could follow her with ease and grace to ensure he got to see it. She wouldn’t even know he was there. Seeing the smile was enough.  
Until it wasn’t.  
He _had_ to talk to her. He _had_ to find out why his chest ached around her. He _h_ _ad_ to. So he did. Calmly, quietly, playfully, he leapt across from the rungs of the Eiffel Tower and used his baton to launch himself up, before sliding down it to land on top of the wall behind Marinette.  
Chat Noir strolled along the top of the wall with all the grace and sophistication of any other cat in the city. His gymnastics were fine enough that she didn't even hear him coming. Not even by the tinkle of his tiny golden bell. He came to a stop behind her and grinned.  
This was gonna be gold.  
He bent over double so the soft tinkle was close, but too quiet for her to hear, and spoke close to her ear in a soft, velvety tone.

"Hello princess."

Marinette yelped, leaping up so quickly she banged her head right against his. Chat yowled as he fell backwards, his legs flying in the air and landing on top of the wall above him. Marinette yelped, clutching her head in pain. Her sketchbook clattered to the floor. Chat immediately started collecting up the extra pages that had come tumbling out. When she calmed down enough to take in who this was and what had happened and to understand she wasn’t in danger, she scowled at him.

"What the hell Chat?! You scared the daylights out of me!" She yelled.

"Sorry Princess, I didn’t mean to!" He insisted, holding out the sketchbook.

"What are you even doing here?!" She demanded, taking it roughly so he flinched.

"Someone told me you could help me find love," he said, adjusting himself to perch on top of the wall again.

Marinette's chest tightened anxiously. Immediately the anger was replaced by fear. She was keenly aware he was in love with her, or the Ladybug side of her at least, and she was already juggling two boys, adding her partner into this would drive her insane. Worse than usual.

"Find - find love?" She stammered.

"Yes," Chat nodded. He swung his leg out low and sighed. "I'm lonely Marinette. I know, I know, I'm a hero and I'm handsome, I'm really the cat’s meow, how hard could it be to be loved?! Turns out really hard..."

Marinette's heart went out to him a little. She knew how hard it was to be ignored by the person she wanted to be noticed by more than anyone else did. She could sympathise.

"All of Paris loves you Chat," she said.

"They love Ladybug more," Chat sighed.

"So what? They still love you," she said.

"Everyone loves someone else more. My best friend loves his girlfriend more, my fans love my lady more, my father loves his job more, even Ladybug loves someone else more than me..." Chat tried to smile as he came to a pun, but he couldn't quite manage it. "everyone just puts the cat out when someone better comes along..."

"I haven't," she pointed out.

"What about Luka?" He asked.

She felt a flush of guilt at forgetting  him, but a need to ask, "How'd you know about Luka?"

"I live on the rooftops and spend my time chasing little birds. You hear things," He shrugged.

It was easier to lie when he had a mask to hide behind. He had an excuse when he was Chat Noir. No one could find out who he was. No one expected him to be completely honest. He didn’t feel as guilty lying as he did as Adrien. It still didn’t feel good though.

Plus, Marinette didn’t seem convinced by his lie. "I know things too kitty. Like your allergies to feathers. Who told you, because they weren’t feathery!"

"Does it matter?" Chat asked.

"I guess not," Marinette shrugged, "But I thought you loved Ladybug and weren’t gonna give up until she loved you back. What was wrong with that plan?"

Chat ruffled his own hair, practically ripping into it as he acted frantically, "She loves someone else. /loves them! Ridiculously! I can't fight that. Now I'm drawn towards another girl, but she’s got a boyfriend, and everyone keeps telling me they're the titanic heading for disaster, but all the while that ships sails I feel worse and worse and I just-"

Chat groaned heavily, burying his face in his palms in anguish then he sighed into them just as heavily. He rubbed his eyes and ran his fingers back through his hair until he was holding his head in his hands with his elbows on his knees. He looked up at her painfully. Even his voice was desperate.

"I need your help..."

His hair was often messy, Marinette had come to expect that of him, but this was different. His hair wasn’t just messy, it was crazy. Like he'd put a fork in a socket. He was going crazy. She couldn’t let him suffer alone.

"You said you were in love with Ladybug. What happened?" Marinette asked.

Chat leaned back a little as Marinette took a seat on the wall beside him. "Ladybug doesn’t love me. I don’t think she ever will... I'm not sure if I really loved her in the first place, maybe I just idolised her..."

Marinette gulped at how familar that sounded. "You just idolised her?"

"Yeah. I spend so long thinking about how perfect we could be together that I never actually think about her as a person. She’s just this wonderful, beautiful, intelligent icon who I want but can’t have, and I think... I think I only really want her because I can’t have her..." Chat admitted.

It was easy talking to Marinette as Chat Noir. She seemed to understand him better than anyone. Except maybe Ladybug. But when you're confessing you no longer love the crush everyone in Paris thinks you're dating, you can’t really turn to your crush for advice. Marinette tilted her head at him to give him a look of innocent curiosity. He had no idea she was screaming inside.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

Chat brought up a leg to fold it beneath him again and clung to it, kind of like a safety net.

"All my life everything I want I get. My father buys me anything I want, all I have to do is say it. But Ladybug didn’t want me. I couldn't have her. She said no. She was miraculous and she wasn't mine and the longer she wasn't mine the more I wanted her..."

"You built up what you wanted in your head until it became something so perfect even Ladybug couldn't stand up to it..." Marinette finished.

Chat looked over at her in surprise only to find her head hanging low and a strange kind of shame in her eyes. He tilted his head at her this time.

"How did you know?"

"I've done it."

"You have?"

"I have," she nodded sadly. Then she took a deep breath and raised her head to meet his gaze, "But it's not fair to him, and it's not fair to Ladybug. We can't force them to fit an imaginary goal, right?"

"Yeah, I guess not," he sighed.

Marinette frowned, "Then why are you still so upset about it?"

There was a short silence as Chat worked up the will to confess. It wasn't like she'd know he was talking about her, but confessing your civilian self has a crush to your crush, well its nerve wracking. Chat stared hard at the ground, terrified of giving away some detail that let her know exactly who he was and who he meant.

"Because I was so busy being in love with Ladybug I never noticed the girl right in front of me. She's awesome. She's beautiful. She's clever and creative and so very brave..."

"She sounds great, what's the problem?" Marinette asked.

"I was so busy being in love she got tired of waiting. She's a friend. A dear friend. I don't want to lose that, and I love seeing her happy, but I just..." chat trailed off.

Marinette’s hand squeezed his sympathetically. "Wish it wasn't with someone else?"

Chat sighed but forced a queasy smile. His hand tingled where she touched him and it made him feel worse. Marinette knew him so well she could even understand Chat. Not even his own father paid that much attention to him. It was crazy how easily she could understand him, how well she knew what he was feeling, it was insane! If he had seen her earlier, if he had noticed how perfect she was before Luka did...  
At least she was here now. His friend. His very, very important friend. He needed her friendship now. Nothing more.

"To make things worse I lied to my best friend and told him that I was upset because I wasn't allowed to talk to a friend from fencing. I shouldn't have dragged her into this," he sighed.

Marinette frowned. She was clearly irritated by this revelation because she tugged her hand away from his pretty sharpish.

"No, you shouldn't. But you know that now, and it’s too late to take it back." The way she said it was so determined and firm that he knew without a shadow of doubt she was on his side and ready to do anything to help him before he even asked. "so what are you going to do?" She said.

"Beg you to help me by offering you the chance to see Paris from the top of the Eiffel tower? The very top?" He offered hopefully.

Marinette smiled but shook her head. "No thanks, I've got a date soon."

Chat's fake smile stayed firm as his chest fell and his heart sank, "Without me?"

"With my boyfriend you silly flirty kitty," she smirked.

"Well you can't miss that," Chat did all he could to keep the venom and sarcasm out of his tone. His killer smile did more of the work for him. "Shall we take a rain check?"

Marinette looked up at the grey clouds that cladded the sky above them. She clung a little tighter to her sketchbook.

"By the look of those clouds we might have to..."

Chat frowned and followed her gaze for a moment. Automatically his hand reached for the folded umbrella hidden on his belt. His hand lingered there for a moment as he watched Marinette try to shelter her sketchbook protectively. He didn't hesitate.

"Here princess. You need it more than I do."

Marinette glanced down at the green and black folded tube in his hand, then back up at him.

"Your umbrella? I thought cat's hated the rain. What will you do?" She asked with concern.

"We do. But I'd rather keep you dry than worry about myself," he shrugged, smiling.

"You’re a sweet kitty. Thank you."

Their hands brushed as Marinette took the umbrella from him. A short sharp shock sparked between them at the touch, and both of them gasped. Chat gave her a sheepish smile.

"I guess you're used to sending sparks flying," he said.

She blushed and curled in on herself, accidentally pressing the button on the bar of the umbrella so it instantly flew open and knocked Chat stumbling backwards. He stumbled back over the edge of the wall again, and once again fell flat on his back with his legs high above him, and all dignity out of the window. Marinette flew to the wall to look down on him anxiously gripping the umbrella.

"Sorry! Are you ok?!" She asked urgently.

"You always find ways to knock me off my feet. I thought it was supposed to be me who swept you up," he joked.

"And I always thought cats landed on their feet, so we were both wrong," she smiled, relieved he wasn’t hurt.

"Not wrong, just not yet right," Chat muttered, he thought to himself.

"My papa says that when he’s trying to experiment with new products," Marinette said.

"Your papa is a genius," Chat said.

"You didn’t have to eat squid donuts. Then again maybe you'd like it. Cats do like fish. By the way do you need a paw?" Marinette grinned.

Chat laid in silence, just staring at her for a long time. Ladybug joked with him sometimes, but that was different. And rare. She never liked him to joke when there was an akuma to fight or lives at stake, which was fair enough, but given that she never wanted to just meet up and hang out without an akuma, meant joking time was very limited. But Marinette made bad puns and teased him like he was more than just a hero or a model... once again he was kicking himself for not noticing her before Luka.  
Her huge blue eyes were full of concern as her face was framed by the black and green lined umbrella he had just given her, now rested in her shoulder. Marinette was still holding out a hand to him, but now it had sunk a little as it got tired.

"You sure you don't want a hand up?" She asked, concerned once again.

Chat snapped back into life, unable to speak except in puns. "Purrlease princess, a paw up sounds pawsitively clawsome right meow!"  
Marinette pulled him to his feet and smiled, but she wrinkled her nose at how awful his puns were.

"We should start a bad pun jar. Ten cents for every pun. By the end of the month we could have dinner in Alya's mothers restaurant!" She said.

"I'd be bankrupt," he smirked.

"True. Maybe we shouldn't risk it," she said.

Fat raindrops began to tumble from the clouds and burst on the dirty ground around them. Marinette held out her hand instinctively to check if it was raining even though she knew it was. Chat looked up to the sky as she did, and a drop splattered straight on the tip of his nose. He yelped in surprise and looked less than thrilled when she giggled. She couldn’t blame him. Neither cats or ladybugs enjoyed getting soaked. But she had his umbrella so he'd have to suffer the rain. Unless...

"Why don’t you walk me home?" she offered.

"Huh?" he sounded surprised.

"Walk me home. Then I'll give you back your umbrella when we get there. That way we can both stay dry," she shrugged.

A small smile curled across his lips. "It'd be an honour."

Marinette smiled back at him. She held the umbrella up so he could climb under, and he gently eased the handle out of her grip when he got hit in the face for the third time. Chat held the umbrella over her to the best of his abilities, trying to ensure she stayed dry. Marinette was less concerned with this, splattering puddles with the toes of her shoes and giggling as she went. Every time Chat tried to frown in displeasure at this, she'd return to the shelter of the umbrella, and press closer against him. She was blissfully unaware of the effect she had. She was utterly unaware of the guilt she caused too.  
She was his friend. He wanted to see her happy. He loved Ladybug. He wanted Ladybug. And yet every skipped heartbeat when she touched his arm like that-

"Chat? Are you listening?" She elbowed his ribs.

He groaned as she did. "Sorry Princess, I must have drifted off, what did you say?"

"Silly kitty," she smirked. "I said what are you going to do about your friend from fencing?"

"Hopefully I'll never have to tell her anything."

"But if you do?"

"Hopefully she'll back me up. Maybe I'll throw some fights to butter her up."

"Can't you just give her those big kitten eyes and throw in a pun? That usually works," she chuckled.

He chuckled back, echoing hers, but sighed afterwards. "I save those eyes for emergencies, otherwise they lose their power."

“good idea, you never know when you’ll have to beg for a treat,” she joked.

“I didn’t have to beg for this one," he pointed out.

"What one?" She asked, confused.

He flashed her a warm, pointed smile. "Walking you home."

"This isn’t a treat, it’s a way of keeping dry," she said.

"I don’t know, just being this close to you is a treat to me," he purred.

"Quit flirting kitty, I’m spoken for!" She warned firmly.

Chat ignored the jab of pain in his ribs but dropped the flirting as much as he could. It was more difficult that he thought. Chat Noir was a flirt. He was a flirt naturally. Now, not being allowed to flirt, that felt unnatural.

"In my experience you’re good at speaking for yourself," he muttered.

"Then listen to what I have to say," Marinette stopped walking to turn and look him in the eye, full of seriousness. "Tell your friend the truth. You already have to lie about who you are, why add to that pressure unnecessarily?"

Chat had a flirty answer and a serious answer, but he wasn’t allowed to flirt anymore.

"Because the truth hurts more…"

His voice was barely audible above the slap of the growing rain, but she heard him. Her hand landed on top of his shoulder.

"Then I hope your friend is willing to lie for you. I hate to think of you suffering alone," she said gently.

Chat bowed his head. He had no idea if Kagami would lie for him - she didn’t have a reason to besides their friendship - but he didn’t have much of a choice...  
Marinette looked up at the faint glow of the lights behind the bakery sign. It was hard to see during the day, but when it was cloudy like this, the faint glow was just bright enough to see. She glanced back at Chat as he put on a fake smile to try and reassure her.

"Just be careful kitty."

"I will. I pawmise."


	6. Chapter 6

Kagami pulled up her sleeve frowning seriously at her watch. Adrien had asked her to come and meet him outside his school, so they could go to lunch together. He had something he wanted to talk about. It was urgent. She glanced up at the murky sky above her. It'd been grey for three days now, and the weather didn’t seem to be improving at any rate. Maybe she should have brought an umbrella...  
She was pulled from her thoughts by a blue haired boy with black paint on his finger nails and a guitar bag on his back. He plucked out a headphone, so it came to rest on his paint stained hoodie and grinned at her.

"Oh, hello. Sorry, it’s just that I didn’t expect anyone else to be here, usually I'm waiting alone," he said.

Her mother always said to be weary of strangers, and this boy certainly looked strange to her. She shuffled away a little, but he followed. He nudged her bag with his tow gently.

“What's that?” he asked curiously.

Kagami pulled her bag a little closer defensively, and realised he wasn’t going to let up until he got a conversation going, so there wasn’t much point in avoiding it.

“I could ask you the same question,” she said, pointedly.

He glanced back towards his guitar on his back. he also recognised the tone. She didn’t want to talk. He didn’t want to force her to if she didn’t want to. He knew what that was like and it wasn’t good. he took a step back to give her some space.

“Sorry, I guess I'm just curious,” he said.

“So I see.”

Her tone was deadpan as she looked back up to the school, silently urging Adrien to hurry up. there was a long pause as the two of them waited. It was getting slightly awkward. Luka didn’t like awkward. He decided that if she didn’t want to talk, he could talk for two.

“Mines a guitar,” he said.

“So I see,” she replied, deadpan.

“Then why did you ask?” he joked.

“I guess I was just curious,” she lied.

“Ah, birds of a feather,” he tried to grin, she ignored it.

Luka sighed. she clearly didn’t want to join in. he didn’t like awkward silences, but it was only a couple of minutes until Marinette’s class left for lunch, so it wouldn’t take very long. Then, much to his surprise, she started the conversation again.

“It’s my epee.”

Luka didn’t want to push his luck, but curiosity got the better of him. “What’s that?”

“A sword. for fencing,” she explained.

Just like most people – especially boys and teenage girls curiously enough - did when she told them, Luka lit up with a sudden keen interest.

“You have a sword? Like a swashbuckler?!” he grinned.

Kagami nodded, “I suppose I do, yes.”

“Amazing!” he grinned. “I wish I could sword fight, but I’d probably hurt someone. Then again on my boat it wouldn't be the most dangerous thing.”

Luka sounded very blasé about living on a boat where a sword wasn’t the most dangerous thing on board. Kagami, however, found that this revelation twigged her interest.

“You live on a boat? Like a pirate?” she asked.

He laughed a little, “I suppose I do, yeah.”

Kagami nodded slowly, turning back to the school building once again as she thought aloud. “The swashbuckler and the pirate... Fascinating.”

“Like I said,” Luka smirked, “birds of a feather.”

The pause between them now was shorter and infinitely less awkward.

“Who are you waiting for?” Luka asked curiously.

“A friend. You?” Kagami asked.

“My girlfriend Marinette,” calling her that made Luka’s smile grin brightly.

Kagami looked up in surprise, “Marinette Dupain-Chang?”

Luka’s eyebrows rose, “You know her?”

“We met once, but I've heard,” Kagami bit back a laugh, “ _many_ good things about her.”

“I've heard nothing about you,” Luka admitted, “What's your name?”

Immediately Kagami closed herself off again with a shake of her head, “My mother says I shouldn't tell anyone who I am in case someone is out to get me again.”

“Again?”

“You don’t need to know about that.”

“Akuma?”

“How did-”

“This is Paris!” Luka laughed. “Who hasn’t been akumatized?”

Kagami paused for a moment to think. Then she silenced Luka’s laughter with a single word. “Adrien.”

“Agreste?” Luka asked urgently.

Kagami frowned, taking a suspicious step backward in case she had to run. “You know far too much. How? Who sent you? How did you find me? What do you want?”

Sensing her very obvious suspicion of him, Luka raised his hands in surrender to show he wasn’t a threat. “Chill out, I don’t even know who you are. What can I call you if I don’t know your name?”

“What do I call you?” she challenged.

“If you're keeping your name secret, I'm keeping mine secret too!” Luka folded his arms with a firm nod.

“Fine. I'll just call you pirate.”

“Then I'll call you swashbuckler.”

Both of them tried to look stubborn about it, like they had just said something to make the other break open and confess all their secrets, and yet both of them were biting back a grin. Luka liked the idea of being a pirate, and Kagami loved the idea of being a swashbuckler. They could almost see themselves on the bow of a ship, back to back, battling off tides of Hawkmoth’s akumas, nameless to each other and to time itself.   
for about a minute anyway.

Marinette came running down the steps calling, “Luka!” but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who he was talking to, “ _Kagami_?”

In contrast, Adrien came wandering down the steps and waved when he saw her, “Kagami!” although his smile became slightly faker when he saw who she was talking to. “Luka.”

“Hey Adrien," Luka said. He linked an arm around Marinette's shoulders to pull her close and kiss her forehead, "hey babe."

“Hello Marinette. Hello Adrien," Kagami smiled politely.

“I see you met my boyfriend Kagami,” Marinette smiled back.

Adrien flinched at the word, which Kagami noted as interesting, but not as interesting as the sudden mild disappointment in the back of her own mind.

“I did, yes,” she said.

“you never mentioned her Mari. There’s no bad reason for that is there?” Luka teased.

“don’t be silly, Kagami is a wonderful person,” Marinette smiled.

She was doing an excellent job of smiling through the familiar burn of jealousy. Perhaps that was because it was milder than usual. She hadn’t liked Kagami last time, but she was kinder and more thoughtful than Lila, in her opinion at least. It could just have been her willingness to accept an apology though. She still felt bad about how she treated Lila, but at least Kagami accepted she was sorry. Adrien could use a girl like Kagami.   
Wait, no, she loved Adrien.  
Adrien could use a girl like her.  
Right?  
When Marinette glanced up at Luka's warm smile he was giving to the others despite the jealous flame in his chest, Marinette realised she wasn’t helplessly in love with Adrien anymore. She liked Luka. More than like. She might even love him... She also realised she had not listened to a word Adrien had said for the last two minutes.

“An amazing fighter too, best in class!” Adrien beamed proudly.

“tied best,” Kagami corrected, affectionately.

“don’t be modest, you’re way better than me,” Adrien grinned.

“not according to Marinette,” Kagami joked.

Marinette blushed, “I’m sorry about that, I really was-”

“don’t worry Marinette, I understand. It was an easy mistake for a beginner. All is forgotten,” Kagami promised.

“Th-thanks?”

Marinette glanced uncertainly at Luka. He was clueless to her past mistake but winked to reassure her anyway. Her chest eased when he did. Meanwhile Kagami turned her attention to whatever issue was so important to her friend.

“Where shall we go for lunch Adrien?” she asked.

Adrien finally pulled his gaze away from Marinette, “oh, um, it’s this way."

“we’re going this way,” Luka deliberately pointed in the other direction.

“I’ll see you in class later than Marinette. Bye Luka,” Adrien said, trying not to sound bitter.

“Bye Adrien. See you later swashbuckler," Luka grinned at Kagami.

Kagami chuckled and nodded in response, “Goodbye pirate. Goodbye Marinette."

Marinette was frowning at Luka too much to pay attention to how she was talking. the suspicion crept into her voice. “bye…”

Alya leaned her arm on Nino's sagging shoulders as they watched Marinette and Adrien head off in separate directions with people they weren't destined to love.

“Damage control will be in overtime tonight,” Alya said.

“Damage control needs to be paid more,” Nino said.

Alya smirked but nodded, “ain’t that the truth.”

…

Luka held Marinette's hand to help her keep her balance as she wandered along the top of the wall. She didn’t feel a need to mention that she was used to walking on a tightrope above the city so her balance - despite how clumsy she was on the ground - was immaculate.

"Do you think we spend too much time together?" She asked curiously.

"Do you?" Luka asked.

"No, but what about your lessons?" Marinette asked.

"What about them?" Luka asked.

"You said you were home schooled."

"I am. So what?"

"You wake up early to come over and walk me to school, even when you don't need to-"

Luka interrupted briskly. "But Juleka is with us so that doesn’t count."

Marinette ignored him, "Then you come to pick me up for lunch-"

"Not every day!" He argued.

"Most of them!" She argued back.

"A man’s gotta eat cookie," he laughed.

Marinette rolled her eyes and pointed out that in the ten minutes they'd been wandering the parks together they still hadn't yet eaten. Luka decided it was time to start wandering towards the cafe at the back of the park. He held his arms up in the air, so she could reach out and hold his shoulders. Once he was sure she was ready he swept her up by her waist and set her down gently on the ground.

"You’re very strong," Marinette noted.

"Lugging around musical instruments builds up the muscles," he shrugged.

Marinette laughed, but she wasn’t about to be deterred or distracted from the conversation she was trying to forge with him. Stubborn as anything was Marinette.

"But you come to take me to school and you have to walk back home, then you walk out, eat with me, and walk all the way home again, only to come back to pick me up from school-"

"You _and_ Juleka!" Luka corrected.

"Even so it’s a lot of time together. Time you used to spend learning!" Marinette stressed. She sighed, leaning against his arm, "I love you Luka, I don’t want to be the reason you lose out on your education."

Luka stopped dead in the middle of the path. His face drained of all colour as he stared at her. She blinked in confusion as he slowly came back to the situation.

"Wow..." He choked a little, making her blush as she realised what she said. "That’s a weird reason to say that for the first time."

Immediately she turned into the same stammering mess Adrien was used to. After all they'd been going out for barely a month now, it was still early. Adrien meant so much to her too, but Luka meant more. It was early though, and she didn’t want him to be so attached and yet seeing how he was with Kagami... and now it was too late to take it back.

Her blush deepened. "Oh - I'm sorry - I d-didn’t mean-"

"No, no, Mari," Luka grabbed her hands in his and pulled her closer. "I love you too."

"Y-you do?" She stammered.

"You're amazing Marinette," he smiled, raising a hand to brush her cheek affectionately. "What's not to love?"

Marinette blushed and bowed her head a little sheepishly and then came those ice-cold bursts of water again. She gasped in surprise as one splattered against the back of her neck. She looked up again, and splat! One fell right in her eye.

"My forgetfulness?" She suggested. Luka gave her a baffled look so she elaborated. "I don’t have an umbrella."

"Oh," Luka laughed as she stepped back to tug at her hoodless jacket, "Me neither!"

"What'll we do?" She asked.

"Come here," he grinned.

Luka hooked an arm around her to pull her close against him. Then he pulled off his coat to hold it above the two of them. Marinette laughed, shaking her head and called him useless. The affection in her tone made him grin back. At least he had ideas. She clung close to him, one of her arms brushing against his as she helped him hold up the coat, while the other pulled him close around the waist to make sure they were both equally protected. Howling with laughter they raced through the streets as umbrella began to bloom like daisies here and there. The joy only paused when Luka stepped in a puddle, splashing Marinette's leg, which made her yelp and reel back, pulling the coat with her. As he stepped forward and she stepped back, the coat pulled them back together and they both wound up crashing to the cold damp ground, before roaring with laughter. The coat settled in a puddle and Marinette groaned.

"I wish I'd remembered by umbrella," she grumbled.

"Hey, you might not be dry, but look! They are!" Luka pointed to the band crowded in the band stand, "Let's brighten this place up despite the weather!"

Before she could object, Luka grabbed her hand and yanked her towards the band stand with him. He left her in the rain for a moment so he could talk to one of the band members. She watched him take off his guitar and settle it safely in the band stand before hurrying back to her. There was a kind of flame in his eyes that she only ever saw in Alya's when she was about to tickle her until she cried. He was up to something, and with ice cold raindrops splattering around her and puddles forming in the pavement, she was reluctant to trust his plan. He took her hand in his gently, and smirked when she reeled back.

"Come on, don’t you trust me?"

Maybe it was the way he said it, or the killer smirk, or just the look in his eyes, but the moment Luka said that, Chat Noir flashed in front of Marinette’s eyes. She gasped.   
Chat Noir had known about Luka before he came to see her. His hair was just as messy as Chats. Of course his hair was blue, as was his eyes, and Chat was blonde with green eyes. More like Adrien, if his hair wasn’t so constantly neat. And Chat liked someone else... Unless he was talking about her...   
Could Luka be Chat?  
Could Chat be in love with Marinette _and_ Ladybug?  
Was that just too convenient?  
Although he did flirt, and he did make bad jokes, and he did keep giving her nicknames...

"Nette?" Luka nudged her out of her thoughts gently.

Marinette gulped, "Another nickname? Really?"

"Shh," Luka rested a finger on her lips gently, before slipping his hand into hers again. He said, softly, "Listen."

Marinette was a little lost for words right now given that her mind was subconsciously going over every interaction she ever had with Chat and Luka to see if there was any overlap, so shutting up and listening was something she could easily manage.   
Until she got distracted that is.  
Marinette hadn’t noticed Luka opening his guitar case to hand out copies of music sheets he'd made. She didn’t even know he'd made music sheets. Yet when the song started it sounded familiar. More than if she'd heard it before, it was as if -

"I wrote this just for you. For us. May I have this dance?"

Luka bowed and held out a hand to her. Marinette's stomach felt a little queasy at the familiarity of the situation. If Luka was Chat Noir he was upset about a girl he loved loving someone else and still came to her for advice. She found that odd. But it also meant he was constantly flirting because he knew he was allowed to. She was his girlfriend.

She was dating Chat Noir.

Marinette, too shocked to speak, took his hand robotically and allowed him to control her enough that they could dance together. She lost focus on her thoughts every now and then to twist under his arm, or roll into his grasp, in a cliché but still enjoyable dance, but she often drifted off again. A splatter of the constant raindrops brought her focus back, but she lost it again for a moment, until they found themselves too close to the growing puddles. Laughing, their feet got soaked as they kicked water at one another. Their ballroom turned to tap dancing. With the beating rain the mud beneath them was getting slippery, so they had to cling to one another’s hands to stop themselves from falling.   
Above them the sky was grey and miserable, but the soaring music matched their sunny smiles, and even the band members were laughing along with them.   
Luka pulled her completely free of any lingering thoughts in one large sweep. Literally. He lifted her by her waist, raised her as high as he could, and spun her in the air until she squealed with laughter. Landing back in the mud she was suddenly very dizzy and clung to him a little.  
Luka held her upright as she collapsed against his arm, giggling. He brushed her stray hairs out of her eyes, smiling warmly, and began to sway gently. Marinette melted into the movements. She moved her hand to his shoulders so she naturally curled them around his neck, and he laid his own on her waist. The music slowed as they did. It was as if Luka had designed the music to follow the manic change of dance styles. Now they ended up pressed against each other slow dancing, the swill of music bubbled to a simmer to mirror it. Marinette rested her head against his shoulder, her heart beating hard from the dancing. Luka's voice was low and near her ear as they swayed.

"I wrote this, imagining us dancing at our wedding day," he explained quietly.

Marinette’s heart stopped altogether. "Our - our what?"

"Our wedding. I can see it. You in a puffy white dress, your blue hair being our something blue, or our eyes - do you realise any kids we have would be blue eyed?" Luka's smile slipped into his voice.

"Kids?" Marinette repeated nervously.

"And my band would be on stage to play for us. Minus a guitarist obviously. Adrien on piano too. Maybe he'd perform the organ when you walk down the aisle-"

"Adrien?"

Marinette pulled away from his shoulder as the beating of her heart began to become loud enough for her to hear. Luka gulped as he noticed the anxious wriggle of her trying to get away. He pulled back to give her some space but his hands didn’t leave her side.

"Am I scaring you?" He asked.

"Kind of..." she admitted.

"Sorry. I know you think I'm too attached to you, but I can't help it. If you want me to back off I will," Luka said, softly.

Marinette groaned under her breath. She felt bad for making Luka chase his tail, but she felt confused and guilty for not completely loving Adrien anymore, and the tangle of the guilt and fear that the joy of loving Luka brought with it ached heavily in her chest.

"I love you Ch- um, Luka, I do. But..." she trailed off.

Luka groaned like he’d been shot. "Yeah. But. I hate that word."

"Maybe we should just take a step back," she winced uncertainly.

They stopped dancing as she pulled back but Luka couldn’t bring himself to physically let get go. Not yet anyway. His hands lingered against her waist, and she didn’t move to bat him away, so he clung on with the last of his hopes.

His voice was heavy as he began, "Back to being friends or-"

"We've nearly broken up so many times now... should we rip the bandage?" She asked.

"I like being your friend Marinette. Friends with benefits isn't necessarily better. If you want to break up-" he began.

"I don’t know what I want," she admitted.

Luka sighed with frustration and pulled one hand away from her waist to run it through his hair.

"Then why do we keep having this conversation?" He complained.

"Because we keep ending up in these situations," Marinette explained.

"What situations?" His voice was tight with frustration.

"Romantic ones!" Her voice echoed his frustration.

"Well we are dating!" He pulled the other hand away to throw it in the air.

"This is different!" She argued back, "Going to a Jagged Stone interview and being called a cute couple is one thing, and sleep overs with your sister and her girlfriend is another, but this... dancing in the rain, under the Eiffel tower, just you and me and this band, with the song you wrote for our wedding day..."

Luka groaned loudly and spun around to turn his back on her. He ran his hands through his hair and yanked on his roots in frustration. Marinette felt the pain he did, and the guilt of her own. Suddenly he took a deep breath and turned to face her. Only he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eye. He took her hand in his and looked down at it as he spoke softly.

"I want you to be comfortable, but I can’t help how I feel," he sighed.

"I know. I don’t want you to. But..." Marinette pulled her hand away from his and wrapped her arms around her stomach guiltily, "I loved Adrien so hard and so long and I don’t feel that anymore and that scares me."

"It scares you?" Luka repeated.

Marinette turned away a little. It was easier to confess to the dirty puddles than to the boy who was nothing but kind and loving to her. Things were so much easier back on the day of the concert. Back before she'd had to face up to Alya and Adrien, and they were surrounded by supportive friends. Back when she knew how she felt, and thought she knew the path this relationship would take... back when things were black and white.

"I was so sure that I loved him, that it was really love, real, genuine love, and now it’s just gone! Like I never felt it... If I can be certain I love one person and wrong about it, how can I know how I feel about you?" She asked.

After a beat, Luka stepped forward and gently turned her to face him again. One of his hands found her hand as the other angled her chin to make her look him in the eye. Both pretended neither had tears stinging them.

"Are you happy?" Luka asked desperately.

Marinette closed her eyes, "That’s not the point-"

Luka cut her off, desperate for an answer. "When you and I are together... when I hold you like this... in the rain... alone... under the Eiffel tower... dancing to a song I wrote for our wedding... are you happy?"

"It reminds me that it's going to end unhappily," she whispered, her voice cracking.

"Maybe if you stop focusing on the end and just enjoy the middle, you won't feel that fear anymore..." Luka moved to rest his forehead against hers, but hesitated, "What would you feel then?"

Marinette gulped nervously but thought about it logically. She cared for Luka. When they were alone it was fun. When Adrien wasn’t in her mind it was fun. But she ruined it by thinking of the future. If she could stop thinking about the future, how would she feel?

"Happy..."

Luka's smile masked the water drop rolling down his cheek enough that Marinette could pretend it was the rain, and nothing more. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she smiled a watery smile as he rested his forehead against hers. "Happy."

Luka grinned, despite the fact both of them were utterly soaked and freezing cold, "Then that’s all that matters."

...

Kagami stirred her tea with one hand, staring at Adrien silently as he stammered apologetically to the end of his explanation. Then, once he had finished, there was a long pause between them where the only sound came from the teacup and spoon.

"You’re telling me, you want me to come and meet you for lunch, _and_ pick you up from school, once a week, so you can pretend we're being friends outside of fencing class so you don't have to admit to your best friend that you're in love with Marinette and jealous that she’s dating Luka?"

"Well that's over simplifying it a bit," Adrien shifted uncomfortably.

"Is it?" The accusing question from Plagg wasn’t as rhetorical as it sounded, but still went ignored.

"And you expect me to give up an hour of my week until you lose interest in Marinette because you're too afraid or guilt ridden to tell her how you feel?" Kagami asked, accusing.

Again, a stab of guilt made Adrien squirm. "It’s not that, it’s just that..."

He trailed off instinctively. Usually he'd start talking about how he felt and it would be shrugged away without a care, or whoever he was talking to just wouldn’t listen. His father in particular just spoke over him before he could finish. He wasn’t expecting Kagami to look over her tea and expect him to finish his sentence.

"Yes?" She demanded.

He cleared his throat uncertainly. "Actually, um, u - I err, I don't know how I feel... I thought I was in love with someone, but Marinette dating Luka gets under my skin so badly it's as if my love never existed... How can I cast aside the girl I love for a crush I can’t have?! If it turns out I was wrong about the love of my life, how can I trust that what I feel for Marinette isn’t just a fleeting love? And if I tell Marinette how I feel and it turns out it is just a fleeting love but it ruins her relationship with Luka-"

"I'll do it."

Kagami's abrupt interruption made Adrien's head spin slightly. His sentence changed halfway through as he twisted himself into the new path the conversation was taking.

"How can- you will?"

"If only to stop you from being such a tangled mess of emotion, yes, I will," Kagami nodded.

Adrien grinned at her with a heavy dose of gratitude, more than he'd ever felt before. With Kagami on his side, he stood a real chance of sorting everything out.


	7. Chapter 7

The laser beams that spilled out from the akuma vanished with a crowd of ladybugs as every other akuma did too. Meanwhile Ladybug - the actual Ladybug - was grinning brightly at Chat Noir. The entire time they'd been fighting together he hadn’t made a single pun or made any indication that he knew who she was outside of her mask. His hair was blonde again, and hid entire eye was green. He didn’t look like Luka. But she was handsome. Maybe not Luka handsome, but he was handsome. Somehow that eased her panic.

She held out her fist as she beamed at her partner. "Pound it!"

Chat looked at her like he'd only just noticed she was there. He didn’t smile. He didn’t bump her fist. He touched his ring to check how much time he had left and came to a decision. One he didn’t care to share.

"I gotta go, I'm sorry my lady, I'll see you around," he said.

Ladybugs face fell. He turned away and reached for his baton to rush off, but Ladybug lunged forward to latch onto his tail. She instantly had a flash back to the day she had grabbed his tail to stop him leaving her balcony. He even had that sad kitten look on his face as he glanced back. Ladybug wondered why she hadn’t noticed the worry that emanated from him before now. She'd been too caught up in her own thoughts to realise he was worried about something too.

"Hey, are you ok?" She asked urgently.

"I gotta - I gotta find s-someone, sorry I gotta go!" He insisted.

Chat yanked his tail away from her and set off, leaping across the rooftops on all fours like a real cat. Ladybug bit her lip as an overly familiar wave of guilt rushed over her. She'd neglected her friend when he needed her. Her first instinct was to follow him to make sure he was ok, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t know who he was. Besides, she already had another friend she'd made a promise to. Alya was nearby, and the Lady blog was waiting.

...

Tikki was sitting calmly on her shoulder, dropping cookie crumbs down Marinette's chest as they wandered down the streets back towards the bakery.

"It was another nice thing you've done for Alya, but aren’t you worried she's going to start wondering why?" Tikki asked between bites of cookie.

"What do you mean Tikki?" Marinette asked.

"I mean Alya is Rena Rouge now. You chose her. Now you're giving her yet another interview. I know she’s your friend, but she won't stop until she figures out who you are. Don’t you think she'll figure it out soon?" Tikki asked.

"I trust Alya Tikki. If she figures it out she'll keep it secret. Even if she’s utterly furious at me for not telling her the truth," Marinette suddenly didn’t sound so convinced.

Tikki hummed thoughtfully, "I don’t think you need to worry about -"

"MARINETTE!"

"Chat?!"

Chat Noir had been eager to make sure that Marinette was safe after the akuma attack. Meanwhile Marinette was pretending to be someone else, as her best friend live blogged the quick interview she had come to give her. Unable to find her, Chat had been working himself up into a lather as he panicked, repeatedly searching the city.  
When he couldn't find her in the aftermath of the akuma he started to get flustered. Now he was full on panicking as he paced back and forth on the rooves around the bakery, urgently searching for her. The moment that he spotted the pink his heart leapt into his throat. His voice tightened as he yelled because he was immediately bounding over to her.

Marinette barely saw the flash of black before she found herself constricted by her partner. If she had had time to gasp before he grabbed her, she would have had no air left in her lungs. Tikki snapped into the shadows to hide. From her vantage point she could see where Chat's baton clattered to the ground some distance away. He had thrown it aside while leaping towards Marinette so he could pull her closer faster.

The panic laced his voice. "I'm so glad you’re safe! I was so worried!"

Marinette's voice was barely a croak as she said, "I can’t- I can’t breathe-"

"Oh God-" Chat yanked himself away, but her onto her arms to reassure himself she was really there. "Sorry! I'm sorry, I was just so worried!"

While he continued to blabber an explanation of how he'd managed to worry himself into a panic over her, he neglected to mention why he was worried in the first place. Meanwhile Marinette gasped for breath. Her lungs ached like he's broken a rib and his claws were digging into her arms so hard she could feel them piercing the skin. Yet the look of utter relief that she was safe edged with fear of almost having lost her that covered his face, made her heart tug for him. She didn’t mean to worry him. She didn’t even know he cared so much.

"I'm so glad you're safe, I was worried," he finished ranting with a sigh.

Marinette gave him an innocently confused look as she searched his face for any hint of Luka. "About me? Why?"

Chats eyes widened in alarm as he realised he didn't have a good excuse. He had to fall back on a cheesy lie. "I just... You’re my favourite citizen. I couldn’t bear to lose you. Even the thought of it-"

His face began to sink into a mess of anxiety and Marinette lunged forward to grab his arms and pull him back.

"Chat, I'm ok! I'm ok, look at me, I'm here. I'm safe. No need to worry," she said, reassuringly.

"Thank God. You’re ok... you're ok... I couldn't bear to lose you..." Chat whispered.

"You haven’t. You won’t. I'm right here, see?" Marinette latched onto his wrist to move it to her cheek.

"You're here..." Chat smiled softly as the fear drained from his face. "hi!"

She laughed a little, flattered by his concern. "Hi."

Unable to hold himself back, Chat wrapped his arms around her neck and buried her face against his chest. "I'm so glad you’re ok!"

Marinette could hear the thundering of his heartbeat against her ear, and her heart went out to him. He had to be Luka. No one else would worry about her this much. She wrapped her arms around him in return and nuzzled against him gently. The leather like material was harsh against her cheek, but she chose not to care. Chat desperately needed a hug from her and she wasn’t going to let go until he needed her to.  
Unfortunately his ring set the time limit. It beeped loudly since it was close to her ear. Chat ignored it, but Ladybug inside Marinette screamed to protect his identity. Gently, she pushed him away.

"You have to go kitty," she said.

His hand stayed desperately on hers, "I don’t want to leave you."

"Come by my balcony tonight. You'll see I'm safe. Right now you need to keep yourself safe. Go," she urged.

"But-"

"Go!"

The ring beeped again, and despite how desperately Chat wanted to stay, both of them knew he had to go.

"I'll see you tonight," he warned.

She laughed and nodded. Chat fought the urge to kiss her forehead goodbye. He grabbed his baton and flew off for his own protection. Marinette's chest heaved.

"Tikki?" She called.

"I'm here," Tikki appeared from a nearby alley.

"Tikki I think I know who Chat is," Marinette said.

Tikki blinked in surprise. She knew who Chat was. She'd known for months. But if Marinette knew that Chat was Adrien, everything was about to become clearer, and Luka was going to get hurt.

"You do?" Tikki asked, eagerly.

"Yeah," Marinette sighed, like it hurt a little to admit, "He's-"

"MARINETTE!"

Marinette frowned at the sudden cry of relief from behind her. She turned to see Luka running towards her from the direction Chat had just vanished in.

"Luka?!" Marinette tried to sound surprised.

Luka grabbed her by the arms and pulled her into a deep hug. His voice was low against her ear. He didn’t sound like Chat, but maybe he was putting on a voice?

"I knew you'd be ok, I knew you'd have to be, you’re way too brave for Hawkmoth to take you down!" Luka said.

He still sounded relieved that she was safe. He held her close, but loose enough to breath. She laughed at how ridiculous he sounded. He knew Hawkmoth hadn't taken her away because he'd just seen her! Even so, it was touching that he'd come to check up on her as both identities.

"I thought you’d be with Alya, apparently she met Ladybug again, but you weren't on the video," Luka explained.

Marinette pulled away slightly so his arms slipped down hers until he was just holding her hand. "Akumas worry me. I hate when Alya gets too close, and I just... I can’t be there when she does."

"I get it. She’s your friend. You worry. I worried about you too," Luka said.

"You do?" Marinette didn’t need to pretend to sound touched.

Luka smiled as he cupped her cheek with his hand, "Of course I do cookie. I love you."

Marinette smiled warmly at him, but her heart beat anxiously. Even when he moved to brush the cookie crumbs off of her chest and joke about her living up to his favourite nickname for her, Marinette couldn't stop seeing Chat.  
Chat who was coming to her room tonight.  
Chat would see Adrien's posters all over her walls.  
Marinette needed to redecorate _fast_.

...

Marinette's room was usually a mess. Alya was used to the mess. Right now though something felt out of place. The clutter was all still there, but something was missing. Something big enough to have an impact, but small enough to go unnoticed in doing so. She couldn't place her finger on it...

"Hey Alley, Grab that end for me, will you?" Marinette asked.

Alya looked up at the strings Marinette was fiddling with while standing on a stall. Alya looked for the other end and nodded, "Sure thing."

Alya pulled forward another chair and stepped up to hold the opposite end to Marinette. Curiously she peered over the bar to see the front of what she was holding. She gasped and laughed when she realised what it was.

"Hey, your Adrien schedule! I haven’t seen that thing in ages!" Alya grinned over at Marinette just in time to see Marinette unhook the strings holding the schedule up. Alya's face fell as the weight of the schedule grow. "Woah wait - are you taking this down?!"

"Yeah, I don’t need it anymore," Marinette said.

"But how will you stalk Adrien?!" Alya teased.

"I don’t stalk Adrien!" Marinette squeaked defensively, "I mean, sure, I follow him, but it’s not like stalking because I'm not, like, um..."

Alya bundled up the folds of the schedule and took it completely into her arms before it could crash to the ground. "Girl, its ok you don’t have to justify yourself to me. Why are you taking it down?"

"Well, for one thing I have this memorized by now-"

"Of course."

"But I don’t want Luka to be intimidated by Adrien. They both mean a lot to me, and they make good music together. I don’t wanna ruin that by obsessing over Adrien. Besides it's kinda weird to have him all over my room when I'm dating someone else."

Alya was nodding along as she looked around still trying to figure out what was missing. That’s when it hit her just how empty the walls seemed to be now.

"Have you taken down all of those posters of Adrien?" She asked.

Marinette glanced over at Tikki, who had spent the morning pulling down what she had just up before. "Yeah I did."

"All of them?" Alya asked, surprised at just how many there had been.

"Well I kept the photos of us. He is my friend after all," Marinette pointed out.

Alya looked over towards the collage of photos framed on her bedside bookshelf. There were the usual photos of Alya and herself, and a couple group shots that had Nino and other class members in. All the photos from their last class photos - the ones without Chloe - took their pride of place. Photos of the band were there too, including a bad selfie of everyone where Luka was pressed against Marinette and Adrien had his arm around her shoulders and she was scarlet. That was one of the only photos Luka was in. Adrien was in at least four, but none of just her and him. Not anymore.

"Just a friend?" Alya asked, pointedly.

"A close friend," Marinette corrected.

Alya looked around the room and it struck her how many things Marinette had removed. Great chunks of wallpaper were visible again, and photos were organised into normal areas so she wouldn't be staring at them so long she forgot to eat as she recited that dumb fragrance advert over and over. It was as if she hadn't been wholly occupied with drooling over him for the last year. It hit Alya then just how insane the two of them had been in trying to get Adrien to notice her. If he had, if they had managed to get them on a date, and then he saw this shrine... it didn’t bare thinking about.

Alya clapped Marinette's shoulder. "Girl you’re growing up right before my eyes. I'm proud of you."

"Because I'm not obsessing over someone who doesn’t love me back anymore?" Marinette asked.

If the bar had gotten that low maybe they should have moved on earlier.

"Because you're starting to act like a person in a healthy relationship," Alya countered.

"I am?" Marinette sounded surprised.

"I was wrong about Luka. You two dating is clearly a good thing, especially for you," Alya said.

"Yeah..." Marinette didn't sound so sure.

She couldn’t escape the idea- no idea was too big of a word. She couldn't escape the suspicions that maybe, just maybe, Luka was Chat. If he was and he felt the need to sneak out to see her and pry into their relationship from a different angle, that wasn’t healthy.

Alya nudged her to pull her back to the room. "What's wrong?"

Marinette put on her best fake smile. "Nothing."

"Don't lie to me, I can tell when somethings on your mind," Alya said.

Marinette knew what Alya was like, especially when it came to superheroes. She'd be worse than Marinette. Less subtle too. A lot less subtle. And she'd demand to know if he knew who Ladybug was, and if he did - Oh God what if he knew?!

"Mari? What’s wrong?" Alya asked, audibly concerned.

"Is not important. It's a theory I'm working on, which I doubt is even true but I can't stop thinking about, and if I tell you it'll only get worse," Marinette sighed.

"Is it about Ladybug?" Alya asked.

"With you everything is," Marinette smirked.

"Can I help it if my blog is so good Ladybug herself watches it?" Alya grinned.

"Well of course she does, if Rena- um, if you had a blog dedicated to you, wouldn't you follow it?" Marinette asked.

"No doubt. Then again, any blog dedicated to me is probably a collection of pictures of me mid-sneeze, and probably controlled by Nino," Alya grinned.

Both of them laughed at the idea of gallery after gallery of mid-sneeze photo of Alya posted by her boyfriend just to annoy her. Nino was a good guy but he could be a devil if you let him.

"If I had a blog dedicated to me, it'd probably be controlled by you!" Marinette beamed.

Alya scoffed, "Please, I have better things to blog about."

From her bag on the desk, Tikki giggled. She and Marinette shared a knowing look but said nothing. Alya helped her gather up the last artefacts of Marinette's obsession and helped her to carry them to the main bins in the alley behind the bakery. Now the bins were full of items Marinette had dedicated most of the last year to protecting, it felt strange. Like she was finally letting go of something she should have let go of a long time ago. Almost... freeing...

Alya hung her arm around Marinette's shoulders, pulling her closer, "feeling good girl?"

"I'm feeling... um..." she trailed off.

"Yeah, I get it," Alya chuckled. "Want me to give you a minute?"

"Is it sad if I say yes?" Marinette asked uncertainly.

"Girl, to be honest, this whole thing is sad. I'll give you a minute anyway," Alya smiled warmly.

Marinette was grateful to have Alya in her life, and to have her for a best friend. Alya understood what she needed and gave it to her whenever she could. Alya would be getting another exclusive interview with Ladybug soon, that was for sure.

"Marinette?"

"Yeah Tikki?"

"Would it be so bad if Luka was Chat Noir?"

Marinette sighed heavily, letting her shoulders sag low. Adrien looked like Chat Noir. Staring at his face on her wall had drilled that into her. It scared her. Adrien looked like Chat, but Luka acted like Chat. Adrien was too primp and proper. His father would never allow him to be a hero. Part of her really wanted Luka to be Chat...

"Tikki, Chat loves me. He's my best friend. He’s my partner. I trust him with my life. But he's overly flirty and he's always making ridiculous puns, I'm not sure I could put it up with that all the time..." She sighed.

"You said you underestimate his sensitive side before, are you sure you’re not doing that again?" Tikki asked.

"Luka is very sensitive..." Marinette muttered.

"What makes you think it would be bad if Luka was Chat then?" Tikki asked.

"I don’t think it would be _bad_..."

"But?"

"But... I don’t know. There's so many issues if he is... If he knows who I am, is that why he loves me? If not, how will he feel when he finds out? What if he still loves Ladybug and tries to leave me for her? For me? And that’s just issues with him and Ladybug! What about-"

Tikki flew up closer to Marinette and laid a hand on each of her cheeks to try and stop her from spiralling into one of her usual panics.

"Chill out girl! If he is Chat, then he's fallen for you twice. That’s real love," Tikki insisted.

"I don’t love Adrien anymore, I've locked myself into Luka, and I'm afraid of who Chat is. Tikki I think I'm heading towards a car crash," Marinette groaned.

"Marinette, you're getting tunnel vision again! Forget about Chat for a while. You know you can’t know who he is, it’s not safe," Tikki insisted.

"I know. I don’t want to put him in any danger," Marinette sighed.

That wasn’t what Tikki had meant. Tikki was the one who was worried now. Clearly Marinette had forgotten that Tikki knew who Chat actually was, and Tikki definitely didn’t want to remind her of it. When Marinette found out who Chat really was, it would come from Chat himself. But Tikki didn't want Marinette to be disappointed...

"What if Luka isn’t Chat?" She asked.

"Who else could he be?" Marinette asked.

"Just... just what if he isn’t? Will you be disappointed?" Tikki asked.

"Of course I won’t. He's still my best friend. Apart from Alya of course. Anyway the point is moot, Chat _is_ Luka," Marinette said.

"Hurry up girl, I wanna show you this video!" Alya called from the balcony.

"Coming!" Marinette called back.

Tikki sighed. She had no idea what was going to happen when Marinette figured out he was really Adrien, but she desperately hoped Luka wouldn’t be hurt in the process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You're about halfway through now so it's time for a break from binge reading. Come on you've got responsibilities and a life and things to do. Sleep is healthy and important, especially this late. Eat. Drink. *Sleep*. Do that thing youre putting off.  
> Sleep.  
> No seriously.  
> Sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh you thought I was joking?!  
> You've got things to do man! This chapter isnt going anywhere, you can come back to it. Have you eaten? Have you drunk water recently? Have you taken your meds? Have you slept?  
> No? Well this can wait.  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> Or not, I'm not the boss of you.

_“Where'd you wanna go? How much you wanna risk? I'm not looking for somebody with some superhuman gifts, Some superhero… Some fairy-tale bliss… Just something I can turn to, somebody I can kiss - I want something just like this…”_

Marinette sang quietly to herself as she reached over towards the large tray full of beads that she had brought to make lucky charm bracelets with her. It was late. The only light on was the desk lamp above her. Each bead was shining under it. Marinette was in her floaty Ladybug pyjamas, and her hair was free from her pigtails but was flowing over her shoulder now. The song was soft and comforting in the calmness of the room.  
Tikki yawned sleepily and came to rest on the hair-free shoulder, curious to see what she was doing. Marinette turned to register the kwami on her shoulder for a moment, before continuing with her song as she picked out a selection of possible colour combinations from the pot.

_“Oh, I want something just like this…”_

"Why are your beads out?" Tikki asked.

Sleepy as she was, the softness of the moment made Tikki extra careful to be quiet. Marinette followed suit, keeping her voice just as low.

"I'm making Luka a lucky charm bracelet. Adrien loves his, maybe Luka'll like one," She explained.

Tikki wrinkled her nose, "Um, don’t you think that'll disappoint Adrien?"

"Why would it?" Marinette asked.

"Maybe he thinks he’s special because you gave him a lucky charm. A friendship bracelet. He made one for you too, it’s like a secret bond between you! One not even Alya and Nino have," Tikki explained.

"You're exaggerating Tikki, they’re just bracelets," Marinette said.

"Adrien's umbrella is just an umbrella," Tikki countered.

Marinette frowned, "No, that’s different!"

"Is it?" Tikki asked.

"Isn’t it?" Marinette asked.

Marinette wasn’t so sure anymore. The umbrella was the only thing she really couldn’t bring herself to part with. Not only because she was in desperate need of an umbrella given the weather forecast for the week ahead. It was sitting in her wardrobe just waiting to be used.

"It's not the gift that matters Marinette, it's who the gift is from. Adrien and you share your bracelets. Why not keep that special?" Tikki asked.

"Well... what'd I do for Luka then?" Marinette asked.

"He gave you a necklace," Tikki reminded her by tapping the plectrum she was still wearing. "Why don't you try making him one in return?"

"You think that'd work?" Marinette asked uncertainly.

"He gave you a plectrum to remember your plans and remember him. What you need to do is think if something you can give him so he remembers you," Tikki explained.

"Something like a Ladybug?" Marinette smiled.

"I'm serious Marinette. You can have matching necklaces and make them special," Tikki urged.

"You're right Tikki, I'll think of something," Marinette promised.

Up from the balcony arose such a clatter that their peaceful little bubble was burst around them. Tikki dove for cover behind the bookshelf, and Marinette went to investigate the noise. She pushed open the skylight and called instinctively.

"Luka?"

Chat rose to his feet and dusted off the soil that spilt over him when he broke that plant pot. "Does Luka come visiting your balcony in the middle of the night princess?"

Marinette smirked at her partner as he came into view. "Would you die of jealousy if I said yes?"

"No, but I might challenge him to a duel. Cats a very territorial you know," he warned.

"I'm not your territory," she countered.

"But you are my princess, and I am your knight," Chat purred.

He knelt low so he could take her hand in his and raise it to his lips. Marinette allowed him to kiss the back of her hand before she pulled it away.

"But he’s my prince. And he'll be here to walk me to school in a few hours, so I need to look presentable, not like I've been awake all night," she warned.

"I won’t keep you long. I pawmise. And I pawmise I'll pay for that plant pot..." Chat glanced back at the mess he'd made.

Marinette seized an opportunity to test Luka. "Should we stay out here, or going into my bedroom? Alone? Where no one could interrupt us?"

Behind his mask Chat's cheeks flushed pink. There was a tone to her voice, a rather pointed one, and it made him too nervous to move. He shook his head so urgently his ears flapped and she bit back a giggle.

"Let's sit on the sun loungers then," she said.

Marinette took the hand he offered to help her climb up out of the skyline and stepped into view, illuminated by the Eiffel Towers spotlight. Chat beamed at her outfit.

"I'd say those were the cat’s pyjamas, but they’re clearly Ladybugs," he teased.

"You like them?" She asked sheepishly.

For some reason the way he grinned at her like that made her chest warm. Maybe it was just because she knew who he was behind the mask - or thought she did at least. Luka was really sweet.

"They're pawsome," he grinned and then bounced his eyebrows as he offered, "I can get them autographed for you if you like."

"No thanks, I'm not a big fan of Ladybug," Marinette shrugged.

Chat frowned. "What are you talking about? Everyone loves Ladybug."

"I prefer someone a little more... chaotic," Marinette looked pointedly towards the broken plant pot.

"Rena Rouge, yeah she's pawsome," Chat joked.

Marinette smirked as she took her seat on the sun lounger and he in turn took his. They were pressed against each other now, close enough that she could hear him gulp.

"She's super foxy and utterly clawsome, but I'm thinking of someone who's only a whisker away from me now," Marinette smiled.

Chat grinned to himself as he came up with another pun. "Hey Nette - can I call you Nette?"

Marinette frowned certainly at the new subject change, but she went along with it. "Um, sure?"

"Nette, I have come to a decision. I have to meet your father," Chat declared.

"What? Why?" She frowned.

"Because I need to meet the man before I ask him a very important question, one day in the future," he continued stubbornly.

"A very important question?" She repeated.

"After that pun I must. Its important Nette."

"What question?"

"I'm going to have to ask him if I can **Marry Nette**!"

"CHAT **_NOIR_**!"

She shoved him so he fell from his seat and collapsed onto the floor, laughing. Her grin was bright, but her tone was outraged despite the laugh she held back. She couldn't decide which one she wanted to feel more. The pun was awful, but she really wanted to laugh. Anyway, it was no worse than Luka's take on it.  
Or his other take at least.  
Chat laughed such bright belly laughs at his own pun that Marinette couldn’t help feeling a rush of affection for him. It was hard to think this laughing sun shining idiot was the same panicking idiot as earlier. She smiled softly as he stood up to reclaim his seat beside her. His emerald eyes shone too green to ever be blue, but he was so much like Luka... She resisted the urge to lift her hand and stroke his ear as she knew he liked so very much by folding her arms against her chest.

"Why are you here anyway?" she asked.

"Firstly, I came to make sure you were ok," he said, seriously.

Marinette tried not to smile as wide as she wanted, but she did curl a little closer to him.

"I am," she promised.

"Good." He let out a breath of relief.

The breath he released made Marinette's chest tighten. She felt a little bad for not being able to tell him she was safe because she was his partner, but if there was anyone in the city that couldn’t know who she was, it was Chat. It just wasn’t safe.

Chat continued, "Secondly, I thought you'd like to know my plan so you can help me fix it."

"That sounds ominous," she joked.

It felt slightly flatter now. She wanted to tease him as much as he teased her as Luka, and teased Ladybug as Chat, but it ached a little since he wasn't in on the joke. Or didn’t know he was. Maybe... That flirty little smirk of his made her wonder how much he really did know...

"It comes with a free moonlit rooftop tour of the city," Chat offered.

"To butter me up?" she smirked back.

Chat's face changed dramatically as he started to wonder something. Marinette frowned curiously as she waited for him to finally say something. Then he groaned slightly.

"There’s a pun about buttering up a baker’s daughter somewhere but I can’t quite think of it..." he shook his head.

"Good. Bread puns are crummy," Marinette's eyes twinkled mischievously.

Chat beamed back, "But they never get mould!"

"Jesus Crust that one was bad!" Marinette laughed.

Chat joined in quickly. Between them the wind whirled, carrying that laughter to the city below them. Tikki smiled warmly at how easily the two of them got along, but part of her knew it was headed for disaster before it got anywhere good.  
Chat Noir stood up, leapt up onto the flat top of the railings, and held out his hand to Marinette.

"Ready to go?" He asked.

Tikki moved so she could follow them when they left just in case she was needed. The shift of the light caught Chat's eye so he glanced up and spotted the beads on her desk below. He tilted his head.

"Wait... were you busy making something?" He asked curiously.

Marinette didn’t really want to tell Luka that she was making him a present, so she lied. "No, why?"

"Your beads..." Chat glanced back at her and noticed the alarm in her eye. He raised an eyebrow. "what were you up to?"

"Oh them..." well there was no point in lying if he could see right through her like this. "I was going to make my boyfriend a bracelet. Something like this one."

Chat's ears twitched and he gulped hard as he tightened his grip on the railings he squatted on. The smile he plastered on looked more like Adrien's billboard smile than the usual grin Chat held.

"You were?" he asked.

"Yeah, but I realised it might upset the boy that gave me this. we have matching ones you see, and I don’t wanna sully that bond," Marinette admitted.

Chat's smile eased into something warmer and far more affectionate, but his knuckles inside his gloves were white with strain. "That’s sweet."

"So I'm making a necklace instead to match this one," She finished.

A punch to the gut. He forced his smile back. "Oh... matching jewellery huh? Almost like me and Ladybug and our miraculous. A matching set... a pair... a couple..."

Chat stared hard at the beads like he was trying to set them on fire with his glare. Marinette frowned in confusion. Luka should have been pleased she was putting effort into a present for him. Unless there was something more to it. Like, maybe he wasn’t Luka after all...

Marinette nudged him gently, "Chat?"

Chat snapped back in the room. "Yeah?"

"You ok?" she asked, concerned.

The lies just fell from his mouth. "Yeah! Yeah, yeah, no I'm fine! I'm just... I'm... I'm fine..."

"You wanna talk about it?" she asked.

"About how I'm feline? Paw-lease! I'm a whisker away from purrfect," he clung to his puns like a safety blanket.

Marinette laughed when he made his jokes, her concerns for him slipping away. "Alright, yeah, you're fine."

Chat frowned at how easily she gave up. "You suddenly don’t wanna talk?"

"After those clawful puns?! Purr-lease kitty, you're bet-purr than cat!" she smirked.

Chat wanted to stay mad at her, but she was so cute when she made bad puns like that, and he wanted to show her the city - his city - in a brand-new way. He held out his hand again.

"Moonlit tour?"

"It's pretty late, I have to sleep before Luka gets here," Marinette warned.

"Trust me, you'll be beautiful even if you don't sleep at all," Chat promised.

"Except you've never seen me exhausted before Kitty, so you have no idea," she countered.

"I have a good feline about it," he said.

She frowned a little again. "That’s the third time you've used that one tonight."

"I guess I'm just too tired to think of anything better," he shrugged.

"You must always be tired then," she teased.

"Cheeky," he winked.

Marinette reached out to take his hand, "Seriously though Chat, are you ok?"

Her eyes were filled with concern, but the moonlight gleaming in them made them brighter and prettier than he could ever have imagined. Her hand curled around his to squeeze a little. Chat gulped. For a moment he wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to confess everything. Everything from who he was to how he was in love with her and he knew she loved Luka but he thought they could be happy - everything he otherwise had no idea about was suddenly answered for him in that moment. He didn’t love Marinette the same way he loved Ladybug, but he love her more.  
And he wanted to see her happy, even if it wasn’t with him.

He smiled. "I'm fine princess. Let me show you."

Marinette gasped in surprise when Chat Noir's free hand hooked around her waist and scooped her up into his arms like a bride on her wedding day. Chat swept her off her feel like she weighed nothing. It was impressive. He shifted her gently to hold her properly, and she linked her arms around his neck to protect herself. The soft chuckle from him rumbled in his chest, muffling the purr fighting to escape his chest too.  
Marinette curled closer against him as he took off, partly to defend herself from being dropped - he was hurrying across rooftops with her in his arms, but if he needed to use his baton, she didn’t want to fall - and partly to hide the blush growing in her cheeks at how easily she fit against him. They'd only travelled like this once before, and they ended up somewhere beautiful then too. He confessed his love to Ladybug that day.  
She desperately hoped that wasn’t his plan tonight.

"Mari, take a look! It’s beautiful!"

Marinette hadn’t noticed that Tikki had managed to catch up and come to a rest in the curve of her stomach, clinging to her shirt in case Chat glanced this way. Urged by Tikki but hesitate to move too much, Marinette tugged herself up a little to look down at the world around them. Instantly the wind whipped through her hair as they sailed across the city. His hand curled tighter around her protectively and she clung on.  
Marinette was so used to soaring freely through the city under her own control that she never took the time to appreciate the beauty around her.  
Each twinkling light that gave the city its nickname took her breath away. The chill in the air froze her fingers, but her chest was protected by Chat. Cars created a maze of runways across the city that Marinette desperately wanted to explore. Carried by the same breeze that muted it, a low swing of the accordion tangled with the rumble of the river. Soft, distant music filled the streets, almost too low to hear under the cars.

This city was alive. The sounds of it breathing surrounded them, and the light along the roads were its bloodstreams.

Every time they saved the people from Hawkmoth, they saved this living breathing beauty too, and Marinette had never taken the time to appreciate that before. Now she found herself perched between the cold stone gargoyles of Notre Dame, she was speechless. The glorious purple stain glass window that encircled her revealed a candle lit cathedral inside that would have been breath-taking alone but viewed like this was so much better.  
Chat had opened her eyes to the wonders of the city, and Marinette had no words to explain the way her chest ached for more.  
And to share all of it with him.

"It’s beautiful isn’t it?" Chat whispered.

"It’s more than beautiful Chat, its - its - its-"

"Glorious?"

"It’s wonderful!" Her hand laid on top of his bit she couldn't bring herself to look away from the view. "Thank you for bringing me here."

Chat looked away from the view to watch the way the lilac shimmered on her face. The sappiness slipped out of him, making Plagg gag and Tikki tut.

"This is the best view in the city."

It was actually lucky that Marinette didn't catch what he meant by that. There was no chance that she wouldn't have taken the mick so hard he ended up mortified for even opening his mouth. She would have poked at Luka with the same teasing stick making Adrien blush, and it would have become abundantly obvious who Chat really was. Then they would have been in a mess.  
Fortunately words can easily lead to miscommunication, and Marinette was enjoying the gooey romance of the candle lit cathedral with the boy she thought she was dating right now.

"If I had my phone I'd take a selfie," Marinette said.

Chat paused to think before his hand moved to his baton. With a smooth push of his thumb, the screen opened up and became a camera. He held it out to Marinette.

"Will this do?" He asked.

Marinette gasped in delight and grabbed the baton with both hands around hers. "Purr-fect!"

Chat blushed under his mask but grinned anyway. Marinette held the baton up with one hand and pulled Chat closer with the other to try and get both of them in as well as the background. Chat ended up on his knees with his cheek almost pressed against hers, wearing a smile as fake as a billboard, and his eyes full of curses. Beside him Marinette's hair was messy from the journey, her lips were turning blue since she only had her thin pyjamas for protection, but her blue eyes were dazzling. Neither of them looked particularly good, but all eyes would be on the city around them.

"Paw-geous," Chat choked as he took his baton back.

There was a lot of fumbling to try and get his baton back on his belt. His numb fingers kept slipping and dropping it. Marinette leaned back against a gargoyle and chuckled as she watched.

"Hey, what's your plan anyway?" She asked.

Chat stared at her, baffled. "Plan?"

"You said you wanted to bring me here to tell me your plan," she reminded him.

"Right. It's nothing interesting," he shrugged.

"Tell me anyway, I'm curious and you know what they say about curiosity," she grinned.

"I hate that saying," he said.

Even so Chat moved to sit cross legged between the legs of the statue so he could see her but she couldn’t see if he blushed or not. Up here he could claim it was wind burn, but he didn’t really want to have to lie anymore.

"I’ve decided, um..."

"Yeah?"

"Well... I’ve decided... that... since my crush is happy, I'm not going to hurt that by telling her how I feel. If she's happy I'm happy,"

"Wow. Don’t get me wrong that's probably the best way to make sure you don’t accidentally hurt her, but still," she laid a hand on his arm, "That sounds shitty kitty."

"Yeah it is," he sighed.

Marinette was less certain that Chat was Luka now. She _was_ Luka's crush. Wasn’t she? Or did he like someone else? Who? After all the fuss they'd made about being together despite her liking Adrien - and more the point, she didn't love him like that anymore - he was the one that liked someone else? Marinette's chest ached hard. She knew they'd have to split up eventually, but this hurt far more than she'd expected.

"How's the lying going?" She found herself asking.

"Honestly?" He smirked.

"If you can manage that," she shrugged.

The flair for jokes had faded now. Both of them were trying not to let the other see their pains. Jokes hurt more than just talking.

"I convinced my friend to lie for me. Now we meet up once a week for lunch, but it's cool. At least we get to hang," Chat admitted.

"Is that better than being honest?" Marinette asked.

"I have to lie about everything else, what could another lie do?" Chat shrugged.

"At least you can be honest with me," Marinette said.

Thump. Thump. His heart hurt.

"Yeah. We're lucky people you and me," Chat Noir said.

Thump. Thump. Her heart hurt.

Tikki closed her eyes and wished beyond anything else that this would be over faster so the pain could move on quickly. Marinette just wanted to go home now.

"Chat... it's late... I need some sleep before yo- Luka picks me up from school or he'll tell me off for not sleeping properly," she whispered.

Chat kept the torment from his voice with a smile, "He sounds like a good boyfriend."

Marinette stared hard at the city, blinking back the tears. "He's the best."

The ride home was quieter and infinitely less magical than the ride out. They landed soundlessly on the balcony, and Marinette slipped from his fingers like a fish to a pound. He kept hold of her hand for a lingering moment though. The urge to kiss her hand was great but the urge to kiss her lips was far greater.

So he did neither.

Her hand fell to her side as he bowed. "I'll bid you adieu mon Cheri. Goodnight princess."

"Goodnight kitty," she nodded.

He left without another word. Marinette stayed awake for another hour or two staring up at her skylight and wondering if Chat was Luka, and who he could be if he wasn't. Tikki gave up trying to help her sleep and rested on her chest above her heart instead. It didn’t matter how much it hurt if Tikki was there instead...

"MARI DEAR, WAKE UP! LUKA'S HERE!"

Marinette bolted awake as usual. Tikki had moved aside earlier in the night to avoid being flung across the room again. Marinette glanced around for her kwami, and suddenly noticed a piece of paper resting on the skylight. She frowned curiously and pushed it up to grab it. In doing so, she noticed the magically fixed plant pot at the end of her balcony. She smiled to herself, remembering the good from the night before first. Suddenly she burst into laughter.  
Tikki sat up, yawning. She shook her little wings and rubbed her eyes as she woke herself up. The giggling from Marinette came from the balcony. Curiously, Tikki followed it.

"Marinette, you’re gonna be late!" She warned.

"I know Tikki, but I still have to get dressed," Marinette smiled back.

Marinette paused to kiss the kwami between the antenna and wish her a good morning before heading in to find her clothes. Tikki raised an eyebrow at the note Marinette had dropped. It was slightly cruder than Chat's usual puns, but the paw print at the end of the paper meant it was defiantly from him. Tikki wrinkled her nose. This wasn't going to end well.

"Are you coming Tikki?" Marinette called.

"Right behind you girl!" Tikki called back.

She flew inside leaving the pun on the wire table, slightly hoping it would just blow away. Then again, who else would understand its hidden meaning?

_Buttering up a baker’s daughter is what leads to a bun in the oven._


	9. Chapter 9

As much as it hurt to see her with Luka, Adrien was enjoying watching Marinette act like the world was perfect. Especially this morning. He was exhausted from a long night of staying away, thinking of Luka and Marinette on her balcony, in his spot, but when he saw her again in the morning, he was presently surprised.   
It was the first time in all the time Marinette and Luka had been dating that he hadn’t seen them lingering outside so they could spend as much time together as possible before school started. Instead he was greeted by the sight of Marinette and Juleka dancing along to Jagged Stone's freshly leaked song together in the middle of the classroom. Rose was laughing and cheering while Nino and Alya filmed the dancing. It was blatantly obvious that Marinette was leading Juleka. The sun beaming through the window paled in comparison to their manic grins. Adrien wandered to his seat to set his bag down beside Alya.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Marinette's trying to convince us that we should have a school dance," Nino explained.

Adrien raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"She's just in a dancing mood. She was dancing out on the doorstep with Luka-" Nino began.

Adrien's chest sank. "She was?"

Nino continued, "And he said if we can convince Mr Damocles to let us have our dance he'll be up for re-joining the band!"

Adrien's disappointed was replaced with more confusion, "Wait - the band split up?"

"No, but he's been so busy with Marinette he hasn’t gone to any rehearsals," Nino explained.

"Neither have you. What’s your excuse?" Alya challenged.

Adrien clutched his chest in surprised at her damming look. "M-m-me? Well I - I - I-"

"I'm playing with you girl, I know what your fathers like," Alya teased.

Adrien sighed with relief. He turned back to watch as Marinette grabbed Mylene's hand and pulled her into the dance. Surprised but laughing, Mylene allowed her to turn the room into a tiny, giddy ballroom. Juleka grabbed Rose's hand, and the girls joined in, laughing too.  
Marinette had been in a dancing mood all morning, that was for sure. Tikki assumed it was a delayed reaction from hurtling through the sky in the middle of the night, but it wasn’t like Marinette could explain that to anyone. It wasn’t like Chat Noir usually went around sweeping people off of their feet and out of their beds for a midnight adventure. They'd want to know why. Then she'd have to explain that he was so worried about her that he came to check up on her. Then people - no, not people, Alya - would get the wrong idea. Or would figure out who she thought Chat was and try to "help" her figure out for certain by bombarding both Luka and Chat with probing questions. It was safer and easier to just laugh it off and carry on dancing.  
Marinette let go of Mylene as Ivan asked if he could have this dance. She glanced around to try and see who was close by. Her eye fell on Adrien.

"Adrien - Adrien dance with me!" Marinette held out both hands and beamed at him.

Adrien's cheeks flushed red and he stepped back nervously, "M-me?"

"Yeah you!" She giggled, "you dance so well, dance with me!"

"What about, um, Alya?!"

"I already danced with her, and she out fox trotted Rena Rouge with Nino!" Alya beamed.

Nino frowned thoughtfully and turned to face her, "Fox trotted?"

Alya matched his thoughtful frown and offered in alternative, "Fox tred?"

"We'll look it up later," Nino shrugged.

"Dance with me!" Marinette repeated eagerly.

“Show him how great you and Nino foxtrot girl,” Alya interrupted.

She and Nino could see the fear on Adrien’s face that Marinette clearly couldn’t. They did what they could to try and get Marinette to dance with someone else, but when Marinette set her mind to something it was almost impossible to stop her from doing it, and she wanted to dance with someone new.

“Come on Adrien, I’ve already danced with them!” she whined.

Adrien gulped and glanced around for someone, anyone, to take his place. "Alix?"

Much to his relief Marinette's grin turned to the pink haired girl who had been carving into her desk with a ruler.

"Alix, wanna dance?" Marinette grinned.

Alix wrinkled her nose. "Dance means something else to me. Wait-" she spun in her chair to look back at Kim, who had Max in a headlock. "Oi! Kimmy! Wanna dance with Marinette?"

Kim raised his head, momentarily easing up on Max. "Our dance or normal dance?"

"Normal dance!" Alix said.

"Sure!"

Kim straightened up, freeing Max, who leapt for the safety of his seat at the back, next to Sabrina. Sabrina had moved away from Chloe, since she had recently decided Sabrina wasn't someone she wanted to be friend with again.  
With a slightly manic grin, Kim lunged down the steps straight at Marinette. Adrien was accidentally shoved so he collapsed on the seats that Marinette and Alya usually occupied. Kim wrapped his arms around Marinette and hoisted her up in the air to twirl her, and Alya and Nino were too busy filming it to notice Adrien's fall.  
Plagg peered over the table to watch the way Kim controlled the dance. He treated Marinette slightly light a rag doll. She laughed because her feet were rarely on the ground, but it was tinged with fear. Plagg tutted.

"Come on kid, you can dance better than that," he said.

"Not with her Plagg!" Adrien said.

"You danced in front of the entire police force but you can't dance with Marinette?" Plagg scoffed.

"I'm not in love with the entire police crew," Adrien said.

Plagg rolled his eyes. "Wuss!"

Adrien croaked in offence, but he didn’t have time to argue back because Nino leaned back to look at him, and Plagg dove for cover. "Dude, who are you talking to?"

"Um, you?" Adrien lied.

"Sorry, I wasn’t listening, what did you say?" Nino asked.

"I said, um..."

"NATHANEAL!"

Adrien sat bolt upright at how joyful Marinette sounded when she called his name. Nathanael was shy and quiet but Adrien knew how he felt about Marinette. Adrien also knew what he could be like when he had a little more confidence. Smooth. Swave. Romantic. He couldn’t lose Marinette to _Nathanael_. Adrien left Plagg on the ground for his own safety and leapt to his feet to dance with Marinette.

"I said I wanna dance!" He lied to Nino and hurried over to Marinette to break her and Nathanael apart.

Plagg rolled his eyes as he watched Adrien go. "Dumb kid."

Hearing a voice she hadn't heard in nearly a century, Tikki sat up from her bag. Marinette had left it at her seat while she danced to protect Tikki, and now Tikki was incredibly grateful.

"Plagg?" She said in surprise.

Plagg spun around in surprise to hear the other side of his coin call him for the first time in a century. "Tikki?"

His whiskers drooped as her antenna perked up. She flew out of her bag, beaming and zoomed over to tackle him to the ground in a hug.

"Plagg!" She cried in delight.

"Tikki!" Plagg cried back, used to the crush she held him in.

It took him a minute to wriggle into position to hug her back. It had been far too long since he got to hug his truest friend. After the surprise and delight passed them by, he opened one eye to watch Alya stand up and adjust Adrien's hold on Marinette once again. This time they both just laughed, but Plagg could sense the embarrassment in Adrien. He had to do something to help.

"Hey, what is your girl doing? She's driving my boy crazy!" Plagg insisted

"I know I'm sorry," Tikki said, then she paused to think before adding, "Although he’s not exactly helping her."

Plagg frowned. "What'd you mean?"

"She thinks Chat is Luka," Tikki explained.

In the years they'd worked together Tikki and Plagg had worked with some... not very sharp partners. They could get the job done, and they had other talents that made them perfect for their role, but they weren't always smart in an academic way like these two. Yet these two, who actually were academically smart, seemed to be the dumbest sometimes.

"She thinks the idiot with the crush on her is the idiot she’s dating?" Plagg was amused.

"You see the problem then?" Tikki said.

Unlike Tikki, who cared about everyone and everything in equal amounts and had a brilliant amount of compassion that made her perfect for training a just hero, Plagg was protective of the people he cared about and cared mostly and vividly about the people who were important to him, which made him good for training a defensive hero. It all seemed clear to Plagg. Have Marinette break Luka's heart to save Adrien's. Quick, simple, and it would mean Plagg finally got a good night rest that month.

"Why does it have to be a problem?" Plagg asked.

"Because Luka doesn’t deserve a broken heart," Tikki said, firmly.

"Then he shouldn’t have started dating someone who doesn’t love him!" Plagg shrugged.

"Plagg! Chat has to stop coming to see her," Tikki said, stubbornly.

Plagg didn’t disagree with that. Making Adrien Chat was exhausting and he didn’t really want waste it on flying through the city to impress a girl who could fly through the city any time she liked. But it usually made Adrien happy enough to actually sleep, and Plagg knew how important it was for Adrien to sleep. Anyone rushed off their feet like him in the morning needed all the sleep they could get.

A burst of laughter broke through them.  
Tikki and Plagg climbed up into the desk to watch their partners dance. Adrien had started to show off his Chat Noir strength as well as the dance training his father paid for before fencing became available. He lifted Marinette up like they were figure skaters, until she giggled so hard he had to put her back down. She clung to him as she lost her balance a little, but he grinned back as he helped her to her feet.

"Look at them Tikki. They’re so happy..." Plagg said.

"They’re destined to be together," Tikki agreed

"Then why should we get in the way?" Plagg asked.

"She is dating Luka!" Tikki argued.

Plagg groaned. He knew she was right. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t just. It wasn’t Ladybug. But he just wanted Adrien to be happy. The first girl he loved since Ladybug was yet another girl he couldn't have. _That_ didn’t seem fair either.

"He won’t listen to me. He doesn’t have any reason to. I'm not allowed to talk to people remember?" Plagg said.

"Make him believe you," Tikki said.

"I can't without telling him..."

Plagg trailed off pointedly. He'd never really understood why everyone was adamant that no one couldn't know who was behind the mask, until Henson. Henson was a killer Chat Noir. Arrogant, smug, puns for days, a real ladies cat too. Despite the fact he was tied to his Ladybug - and hopelessly in love with her - there wasn’t a person in Hamburg he hadn't tried to kiss. Of course as soon as he could he told _everyone_ he was Chat Noir, and everyone was delighted to see him. They lined the streets for autographs, commissioned portraits in and out of uniform, crowded the restaurants where he ate just to get a chance to talk to him.   
Even the person who he poisoned him.   
Ladybug worked alone after the funeral, and Plagg ensured he never let his charges tell anyone who they were before it was safe. He didn’t want to put Ladybug or Tikki in that position ever again, and he definitely didn’t want to lose another kitten again.

Tikki shook her head, "You can’t tell him that!"

"I don't _want_ to tell him, but it’s the only way he'll believe me!" Plagg insisted.

Tikki groaned. She laid her head on her hands and watched Marinette try to spin Adrien as fast as she possibly could to make them both dizzy while she thought.

"Alright new plan... we have to split up Luka and Marinette so she can date Chat instead," Tikki said slowly.

It wasn't much of a plan, and Luka still might get hurt, but it was safer this way. Safer for Chat and Ladybug too.

Plagg didn’t seem so convinced. "How will that work if she thinks Chat _is_ Luka?"

Before Tikki could answer, a scream ripped out across the classroom, shaking them both to their core so they both dove for their covers ready to transform if needed.

"GET AWAY FROM ADRIEN!" Chloe squealed furiously.

She stormed over and ripped Marinette away from Adrien. Alya turned off her phone and stood up, ready to fight. Nino grabbed her arm and sat her back down. This wasn’t her fight. Reluctantly she agreed.

"Chloe, chill out, we're just dancing!" Adrien said.

"No! No dancing!" Chloe turned her back on Adrien to grab Marinette with both hands. "I know what you're up to. Your loser boyfriend left you, so you’re trying to seal Adrien back-"

" _What_?!" Marinette couldn't hide the outrage that tinged her tone.

"Well you can’t have him!" Chloe shouted.

"Chloe, chill!" Adrien hissed, trying not to blush.

Marinette shoved Chloe back from her furiously, "Luka is _not_ a loser!"

"Please, anyone who would date you is a loser!" Chloe scoffed.

Tikki recognised the little red bug getting riled up and gulped nervously. Adrien stepped forward to try and defend Marinette. Alya stood up again but Nino held onto her arm.

"Hey Chloe that’s not fair-"

"Hey shut up Chloe!"

Chloe spun around to glare at them too, "Oh look it’s a whole loser family!"

"Just because no one wants to stand with someone as cruel as you Chloe doesn’t make _them_ the loser," Marinette spat.

"Yeah!" Alya cried.

"Whatever, I hope you and your loser family are very happy together," Chloe sneered.

"We will be because you won't be part of it," Adrien said, firmly.

Chloe reeled back like she'd been shot. She scoffed again and tried to pretend there weren’t tears forming at the edges of her eyes as she stormed off to her seat. Marinette raised an eyebrow at Adrien.

"That’s kinda harsh Adrien," she said.

Adrien frowned, "But she-"

"She's Chloe. I expect that from her. You’re better than that," Marinette said.

"But..."

Marinette shook her head and wandered off to her seat. Her dancing mood was thoroughly destroyed. Adrien felt disappointed. Hurt even. Marinette expected more from him and he let her down. He was just trying to defend her...

Adrien sank into his chair beside Nino as soon as Alya had vacated it. Adrien looked back at Marinette. She refused to meet his eye. He hu b his head as he turned back to the front.

"You did your best kid," Plagg said quietly.

Adrien sighed. "And it still wasn’t enough."


	10. Chapter 10

Luka ran towards the familiar blue hair but stopped when he realised it wasn’t who he thought it was. "Marinette - oh, swashbuckler!"

Kagami's caramel eyes lit up when she saw him and smiled, "Hello Pirate."

Luka laughed at the nickname, making his hair bounce. "How have you been?"

"Curious," Kagami admitted.

"Oh really? Anything I can enlighten you about?" Luka asked.

"Yes, actually," Kagami said. He tilted his head curiously, waiting for her to continue. "What's it like to live in a boat?"

Luka paused. He had lived there for as long as he could remember. He could remember bringing in pales of water from the side of the ship to clean with and boiling some on the engines to give Juleka her first bath. He could remember waking up to ducks waddling past his window. He could remember travelling the waterways for a holiday and watching the fireworks above ancient castles from their top deck, wrapped in a blanket, nestled between his parents with Juleka. He remembered hiding below deck watching his father storm out after an argument with his mother. Everything became slightly manic after that.

"Wild. Free," he smiled at the early memories, but his face fell afterwards, "But at the same time... trapping."

Kagami blinked in surprise. "Trapping?"

Luka nodded. He bowed his head a little as he confessed, "I live in chaos. The law hates mums disregard for it, and I'm constantly having to change my plans at the last moment to look after my sister. I had to drop out of school to make sure someone was there to get her in on time... mum's busy living in anarchy, but someone has to be responsible..."

Kagami realised she'd touched a nerve. She raised her hand to touch his arm reassuringly but hesitated before she could actually touch him. When she thought better of it, she tucked her hand into her pocket. Kagami raised her chin high so she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye as she explained herself.

"My mother controls my every move. She's so protective and controlling that I never got to go to school. I'm home schooled to ensure I learn the grand history of my ancestors and their legacies... it can be quite... daunting..."

Her chin slipped for a moment, but she raised it higher afterwards, just like her mother always taught her to. Never get weighed down, but if you do, don’t stay weighed down. Kagami was surprised to feel Luka nudge against her suddenly, but his cute smile eased her blues.

"Maybe we should swap for a day or two. You can board the liberty and make my messes, and I'll go to lessons and learn about your history," he joked.

Kagami raised her hand to hide her chuckle politely. Then she saw the chipped nail varnish on her index finger and groaned. Manicures were expensive and she'd ruined this one already. Luka frowned when she groaned.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I broke my manicure," she sighed.

"Can I help?"

"Only if you can paint nails with any kind of skill!"

"Of course I can."

Kagami snapped upright and looked at him in a new light, "Wait - what?"

"Of course I can paint nails, I grew up on board Liberty with my mum and Juleka, listening to punk rock and trying to be like Jagged Stone. Why wouldn't I be able to do your nails? I can do eyeliner too if you want," Luka smirked.

"Let's stick with nails for now," Kagami smiled back.

"What are you up to right now?" Luka asked.

"I'm going to lunch with Adrien," she said, pointedly.

Luka laughed sheepishly and nodded. "Of course. After lunch?"

Kagami shrugged, "I have to go home to my lessons."

"You’re home schooled?" Luka asked.

Kagami nodded, "I am. You are to. You said so."

"I did?"

"Don’t you remember?"

"I find talking often complicates things."

"How so?"

Luka began moving his hands before he had words to explain what he meant. When he tried to explain to Marinette he had his guitar to help him explain, which kind of proved his point twice. Now he left it at home he had to use words to explain how using words wasn’t an effective form of communication.

"There's just so many ways that it can go wrong. Miscommunications I mean. Like um... Like if I tell you you’re beautiful you might think I'm flirting, but I'm just stating a fact."

Kagami looked surprised and bowed her head a little to hide her pink cheeks. "You think I'm beautiful?"

"I do. You are. But I'm not flirting," Luka repeated.

Kagami still couldn't bring herself to look at him, "So you said."

"Music is easier to understand. It’s hard to go wrong with a wordless tune that explains how you feel," Luka continued.

"I'd like to hear one of those," Kagami smiled.

"Sure, come to my boat any time and I'll play for you," Luka said.

"I'm free at lunch tomorrow," Kagami said.

Luka shook his head. "I'm meeting Marinette."

"Oh. Ok. Do you um, do you do that every day?" Kagami asked.

Luka didn’t notice the confusion on her face when she stammered. She wasn’t used to feeling so sheepish like this. It kept her on her toes, like a fencing match, but she wasn’t sure she liked it.

"Of course I do. Usually anyway. But Marinette did say we spend too much time together..." Luka frowned to himself. He felt like she was pulling away, and he was really ready to let her go, but he didn’t want to trap her. "maybe she won’t mind me missing lunch once."

"We can do my nails then too, if that's convenient," Kagami said eagerly.

Luka grinned at the ease of planning, "Sure, I'll ask Juleka if we can borrow her nail varnish. Rose brought her a box with every colour in the rainbow, but she only ever wears the purples and blues."

"She sounds like a girl who knows her own mind," Kagami smiled approvingly.

"She is. You'd like her," Luka winked.

Kagami looked up at the school and muttered, "I'm sure I would if she’s anything like you."

Luka raised an eyebrow. "Are you flirting with me?"

Kagami's eyes widened and she blushed hard. "You're certainly right about miscommunication being easy!"

Luka blushed in response. "Sorry, I had to check."

"It’s ok. Maybe I'll be clearer next time," Kagami said.

It wasn’t as awkward as she thought it would be to be caught out on a lie like that, but she made a note of it. Another thing she could do well. Although her mother wouldn’t approve of this one. Unfortunately there was someone a lot closer who didn’t approve of her either

"HEY YOU!"

Luka and Kagami both looked confused when Chloe came storming down the school steps and headed straight towards them, scowling at Kagami.

"Friend of yours?" Luka asked.

"I believe she’s the mayors daughter," Kagami said uncertainly.

"Chloe?" Luka said, surprised.

"That’s right and _who_ are _you_?!" Chloe snarled.

Marinette was often complaining about how Chloe got away with everything cruel she did simply because of who her father was, and how unfair it was. He didn’t need to know much about her to know what she was like. Kagami had heard enough about the girl who caused many akumas from Adrien, who seemed to be incredibly frustrated about how Chloe was constantly refusing to so much as try and reach the full potential she could. He grew up knowing the kindness she could have, but recently she seemed to refuse it.   
Now for some reason she had her sights set on Kagami, so Luka stepped forward to defend her.

"If you don’t know who she is, why are you being to rude to her?" He demanded.

" _Rude_?! Oh no this is _not_ rude! Rude is stealing my best friend and making him _hate_ me!" Chloe snarled.

"Oh swashbuckler, are you a thief too? Tut tut," Luka teased.

He couldn't resist the chance to joke, but Kagami didn’t seem impressed, and as for Chloe, well Chloe was far too furious to pretend to be anything else.

" _Shut_ _up_ _street_ _rat_!" She snarled.

Luka's face changed. The passive protective expression darkened. Kagami felt an arm on her stomach gently pushing her back behind Luka. She gasped in surprised. No one had ever come to her defence before.

"What did you just call me?!" Luka demanded.

Chloe folded her arms, "Street. Rat."

Marinette pushed the door open with one hand while she looked over her shoulder to laugh with Nino. She stopped dead when she saw the scene waiting outside. Alya was used to this and stopped in time, but Nino crashed straight into her, making Marinette stumble towards the stairs. Alya yanked her to one side to keep her upright, which threw Nino forward. Adrien wasn’t quick enough to avoid him, and both boys ended up in a heap on the floor.  
As they were pushing themselves to their feet and apologising for falling, the girls were preoccupied talking about the small angry blonde down below.

"Ut oh, looks like Chloe's causing trouble," Alya said.

"I wonder what happened, she's been like this all week," Marinette said.

"It’s Chloe, literally everything makes her act like this," Adrien shrugged.

Marinette groaned as she watched Luka push back against Chloe and hurried over to interrupt the arguments. Nino wandered to the bottom of the steps to wait for Alya there. Alya stepped forward to stand beside Adrien.

"You really don’t know?" She asked.

Adrien looked at her, innocently. "What?"

"She's been like this since you ripped her a new one," Alya pointed out.

"That was hours ago, why would she still be like this?" Adrien asked.

"No, the first time," Alya rolled her eyes.

Adrien frowned in confusion, "What?"

"Remember weeks ago when you were brooding over Marinette's new boyfriend, and I tried to defend you from Chloe, but she kept pushing, so _you_ dealt with her?" Alya reminded him pointedly.

It was clear that, until now, Adrien had completely forgotten about that. Although now that he remembered, now he was thinking about something outside of Marinette, he remembered what he said to the only person who was his friend, his only friend, for fourteen years. And he said it again today.

"Oh no."

Alya nodded. "Yeah, I guess she took that to heart."

"Is that what the cakes were about?" Adrien asked.

"Duh. It’s also why she wasn’t exactly pleased when you gave one to everyone else in class but didn’t eat any yourself," Alya said.

"I'm on a diet!" Adrien whined.

"She doesn’t know that," Alya shrugged.

The double chocolate cupcakes came from a bakery on the other side of the city, so no one would think Marinette had anything to do with them. Adrien gave them away freely, to Marinette first. Chloe must have been livid.

Adrien looked to Alya, desperate for help. "I have to fix this."

"ARGH!"

" _LUKA_!"

"HOW DARE YOU! I'M CALLING DADDY AND YOURE GOING TO BE DESTROYED!"

The sudden scream snatched their attention away from each other and back down at Chloe. She was on the floor now, clutching her nose as tears streamed down her face. Standing over her, Marinette had shoved Luka back from Chloe, and now stood in between them, facing Luka, almost protectively of Chloe. Kagami looked shocked, if you knew what subtleties to look for. Alya looked back at Adrien.

"I think it sorted itself out."

Adrien didn’t hesitant a moment longer before dashing down the stairs to where the others were gathered. Chloe looked around at them urgently, but she didn’t want them to see her cry, so she sprinted back into the school, to the safety of the toilets.

"WHAT THE HELL LUKA?!" Marinette yelled.

"What did you do Luka?!" Adrien demanded

Luka ignored Adrien, trying to urge to Marinette that he was in the right. "She was being rude about you, I wasn’t going to stand for it!"

Marinette scoffed and threw her arms in the air, "She’s always rude about me-"

"Exactly! Mayors daughter or not, I'm not letting her get away with it!" Luka raised his voice back.

"I thought you were better than that Luka! If this is how you behave when upset I wouldn’t be surprised if Hawkmoth comes after you next!" Marinette shouted.

All of them reeled back in surprise. None of them had ever seen Marinette this angry, not even Alya. She was usually easy going, even when Chloe angered her, but this time she was obviously furious. Luka dropped his voice low, visibly hurt and confused about her reaction.

"Hey, cookie-"

"No, no, you can’t cookie your way out of this one! Chloe may be a brat, but you can’t just hit people like that!" She hissed.

"I'm sorry-" he began.

"I have to go and check on my classmate!"

Marinette turned on her heels so fast her pigtails flapped and she stormed off towards the school. Adrien moved to follow her but Nino grabbed his hand and pulled him back. Luka looked towards Alya for help. Alya too shook her head.

"We should eat. There’s not much of lunch left," Alya lied.

With no other plan, they allowed Alya to take the lead, and followed her.

...

It took Marinette a matter of seconds to decide that Chloe was never going to listen to her like this. He was never going to listen to Marinette, especially after what her boyfriend had just done. But she still loved Ladybug. There was plenty of time to transform before entering the bathroom too. She knocked gently.

"Chloe?"

Chloe sniffed heavily as she looked in the mirror above the sink to look at the door. "Ladybug?"

"Hey. I saw what happened," she said, coming in quietly.

"Did you get Luka back for me? Did you come to tell me you're going to deal with him?" Chloe asked.

"No."

"No?!" Chloe swung around and suddenly Ladybug got to see her full face. The bridge of her sunglasses had fallen to smash against her nose, and the cut was spilling blood down her cheeks where it mixed with her tears. "What kind of hero are you?! I'll have to get daddy to deal with you too!"

Ladybug was shocked by her look, but cleared her throat, "Chloe-"

Chloe growled in frustration and spun back to the mirror where her make up bag was resting so she could pull it apart and search for something to hide her face.

"God I hate it here! Everyone’s against me for no reason, and they've taken Adrien too!" She growled.

Ladybug reeled back, "Taken Adrien? How have they taken Adrien?"

"Me and this _brat_ Marinette have a game where I'm mean to her, and she's mean back, and it's just a game, but they told Adrien that it all real, and they convinced him I'm evil and - and - and -"

Ladybug had been understandably distracted with the bafflement that Chloe actually believed that this was a game. A game! But now that she was actually paying attention again, she realised that Chloe was starting to hyperventilate.

"Breathe Chloe."

Chloe scoffed, "Breathe?! That’s your advice, breathe?! God you’re useless at this."

"At least I'm trying to help," Ladybug sighed.

"So what?! I want revenge!" Chloe hissed.

Ladybug wrinkled her nose and stepped forward, towards Chloe, trying to ender her to the good side.

"Isn’t it revenge that always gets you into this mess?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" Chloe demanded.

"I mean you're kind of a bully Chloe."

Chloe gagged and slammed the sink so hard that her bracelets clattered loudly, and she spun around to glare at Ladybug, clutching her chest in fear.

"Me?! A bully?!" She cried in offence.

"Yes!" Ladybug said.

"No."

"Yes."

"No-"

Ladybug was rapidly losing the strands of this conversation, and to be honest she wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing here, but she thought she should try to keep up just in case Hawkmoth was about. Only now she was here she was losing her patience.

"Shut up and listen to me Chloe, or I'm walking out of here too."

Chloe opened her mouth wide to argue, but the mix of blood and tears split into her mouth and she gagged. Ladybug leaned into a cubical and gathered some tissues to hold them out to Chloe. Begrudgingly she took them.

"Thank you," she muttered.

"See, is that so hard?" Ladybug asked.

Chloe wrinkled her nose and hissed in pain. "Kinda."

Chloe turned back to the mirror to dab at her wounds carefully. She kept wincing and hissing in pain every now and then, until Ladybug took pity on her. Ladybug took another handful of tissues, a clean handful, and pressed Chloe's shoulder gently to make her turn and face her. Chloe clearly wasn’t very comfortable with someone touching her, even Ladybug, but she put up with it because she needed the help. Maybe it was the intimacy of the situation, given that it was more than she and Chloe had ever really been in before, but for some reason she felt able to tell her everything.

"See, I don’t know what happened to you that made you feel the need to push people away, but that’s what happened here. Luka only met you today and you immediately insulted him. You don’t have friends because you push them away. You did it. No one else."

"But he punched me!" Chloe argued.

"I know, and that was wrong, but think about why he did it," Ladybug urged gently, "why did you insult him?"

"I was just trying to tell Kagami to watch her back because-" Chloe froze. "Oh."

Ladybug raised an eyebrow, "You threated Kagami?"

Chloe's shoulders sagged, "I don’t want her to hurt Adrien..."

"Hurt Adrien? How could she hurt Adrien?" Ladybug asked.

"They're dating. Why do you care anyway?" Chole asked bluntly.

Ladybug's face twisted anxiously as she tried to understand why she was starting to feel a kind of ache in her chest she hadn’t felt since Lila.

"I... I don’t..."

"Whatever," Chloe stepped back away from Ladybug, folded her arms and leaned back on the sink. "is that it?"

"No," Ladybug said firmly. "Chloe, pushing away Sabrina caused two akumas and made you miserable. Being mean to Marinette meant you had no chance being friends with Alya-"

"Why should I care about that loser?!" Chloe huffed.

Ladybugs tone darkened slightly. "Because she’s actually a pretty awesome person, and if you were nicer you see why she has so many friends even though she’s new to the city when you’ve lived here all your life and currently have none."

Chloe cowered a little at the tone. Ladybug didn’t usually do harsh truths, but then again Ladybug didn’t usually follow girls into the bathroom of their school to make sure they were ok either. Especially not Chloe. This was an odd situation for all of them involved.

"That’s mean," Chole said.

"The truth hurts sometimes, that doesn’t mean you can hide from it," Ladybug said pointedly.

"But-"

"Chloe Adrien left because he was fed up of being friends with someone who's mean. You've been so mean you've caused so many akumas that at this point the only person who still likes you is Hawkmoth."

Chloe wrinkled her nose again, but it stung less this time. "Ew."

"Exactly. I'm your hero, right?" Ladybug asked.

Chloe pulled a face that made it look as if Ladybug was being high and mighty. "I guess."

"Then listen to me when I tell you, I know you can be better. You’ve saved my life before. You’ve been kind to Sabrina sometimes. You can be good, you've just got to try," she urged softly.

Chloe stamped sulkily like a toddler whining, "But it’s so hard!"

"It'll get easier. Especially when you have friends to help you," Ladybug said.

Chloe sighed heavily and turned back to look at the mirror. The lack of blood was cleaner so they could see how small the cut actually was. They could also see what Chloe looked like without the make-up she constantly wore. It was easier to talk into her make up bag than to look Ladybug in the eye anyway.

"I’ve already lost Adrien. He and I were supposed to be friends forever. I don’t want any friends anymore," she said.

Ladybug tilted her head. "How have you lost him?"

Chloe popped her lipstick and said, "He’s in love with Marinette."

Ladybug looked as if she had been struck by lightning. "He’s what?!"

"Everyone knows they love each other - or she used to - I don’t know, I don’t care! There’s a bet going around trying to figure out when they'll finally get together, but when they do he'll never talk to me again, because Marinette hates me!" Chloe huffed.

Chloe was grumbling to herself repeating "she hates me" every now and then but it took Ladybug a minute to hear what she was saying because it was taking the whole you're-your-old-crush's-crush thing a while to sink in. As soon as she realised what Chloe was saying.

"Hate is a strong word," Ladybug said softly.

"Doesn’t matter. I don’t even want her to be my friend," Chloe sighed.

"The world is too big to travel it alone. You need someone Chloe. You need friends. Even I have Rena and Chat," Ladybug pointed out.

Chloe licked her lips nervously and dropped her lipstick back into the make-up bag. She bowed her head a little and tried to find the courage to ask what she wanted to. When she managed to find the courage, she couldn't manage to raise her voice very loudly.

"Will you be my friend?"

Ladybugs initial instinct was to just blow her off, but Chloe looked up at her with those huge blue eyes, and Marinette suddenly realised why Chloe was as spoilt as she really was. Her baby doll eyes were just as bad as Manon's. It was difficult to fight a need to say yes, but Chloe was unbearable as a fan, as a friend...  
From her earrings Tikki gave a suggestion that Marinette was not entirely thrilled about, but the more she explained, the more she had to admit there was a kind of sense to it.

"I know someone who can help you find a real friend. One who will help you reach your full potential first," Ladybug offered.

Chloe frowned, "Who?"

"Come with me. But first, we need to clean you up properly," Ladybug said.

A beautiful red and black cloud of miniature ladybugs and pink light filled the room, encircling Chloe. In less than an hour, this would lead to a set of baffled friends when they saw it, because they had seen the blood earlier and there was a lot of it. Before that though, Ladybug led Chloe into a massage parlour, baffling both Chloe, and the old man in the Hawaiian shirt waiting inside.

"Master Fu, this is Chloe Bourgeois," Ladybug introduced.

"Hello Miss bourgeois," Master Fu bowed his head.

"Who are you?!" Chloe demanded.

Master Fu raised an eyebrow. Ladybug winced. Calmly and firmly, Master Fu didn’t let her get away with her rudeness.

"Excuse me young lady, but manners are important here," he said firmly.

The tension in the room after Master Fu spoke to Chloe the way he did made her shift awkwardly and rethink the way she had spoken to him.

"Oh, um, sorry. How do you do? Who are you, um, please?" She asked uncertainly.

Master Fu smiled and nodded. "Better. My name is Master Fu. How can I help Ladybug?"

"Chloe causes more akumas than anyone else. You’re a good teacher, she needs to learn how to control her emotions. Do you have any way of fixing that?" Ladybug asked.

Master Fu moved his gaze between the girls uncertainly for a moment or two, before finally nodding.

"I'll see what I can do," he said.

Ladybug nodded and left Master Fu with Chloe, warning her to make sure she gets back to school on time. Chloe was clearly uncertain about this entire situation, but if Ladybug thought that Master Fu could help her improve her behaviour then she had to give it a try. No one else was willing to help her.


	11. Chapter 11

Marinette didn't hear any intrusion on her balcony until the light tapping on the glass of her skylight. She expected Luka, and she still wasn't exactly happy with Luka, but it was Chat at her window. She groaned inwardly. Luka had come as Chat because she had no reason to be mad at Chat. Genius. As if today hadn't been bad enough. After that akuma this morning, seeing Chat sacrifice himself to the zombies- she might have been mad at him, but damn when he held them back like that she was so worried about him. And with Alya and Nino on top of that, as well as _everyone_ else in their class - Marinette sniffed and ran her hand across her eye even though she was out of tears. It had been a long and draining day.

"Princess?" He called softly.

"Chat?" She sighed.

"I've come to check you’re ok?" He called.

"Why wouldn't I be?" She asked.

"No particular reason. Just that your class were held hostage by your teacher and picked off one by one like zombies. It's hard to think how that could be emotionally damaging," Chat said.

He certainly felt it. Ladybug had saved them, just like he knew she would, but that didn’t make it any easier to see his friends, people he cared about - Nino - transformed into kissing monsters. Literally. And then he had to kiss Chloe, and it was just awful. On top of that, he had no idea what happened to Marinette. She had just taken off before the akuma hit, and he was convinced that only she knew what actually happened. Madame Bustier wasn't in a bad mood or anything even after what Chloe did. He had to assume that that Akuma was after Marinette and didn't choose her for some reason. But more importantly than that, he had to know Marinette was safe.

Right now, she didn't look ok. She sniffed and wouldn't look up at him. "Leave me alone chat."

Usually he would have done as she said, but Nino pointed out that sometimes people say they want to be alone when really, it’s the last thing they want. Besides, he really didn't like seeing her hurt like this. It had to be fixed.

"No. You look like you need company, even if you don’t want it. I know what that's like," he said, firmly.

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

There was a long silence during which neither of them moved. He stayed still, watching her from where he leaned against her skylight, but she didn't move away from her seat. Marinette had been on the run all day, running away from zombies to save a girl who clearly hadn’t taken her warnings to heart, so she was taking the chance to sit now.

Chat huffed. "Well if you’re not coming out I'm coming in!"

Marinette snapped upright and spun around in surprise as he slipped through belly first.

"Into my room? Where we'll be alone? Really?" She asked.

Chat shrugged as he reached up to shut the skylight behind him. "Well I can't hug you from up here and if the mountain would come to the cat-"

"Are you calling me a mountain?" Marinette asked, putting her hand on her hip and frowning grumpily.

"Of course not", Chat snorted as he dropped down from her bed, "Just stubborn as one!"

"Chat!" She whined.

"Well you are!" Chat chuckled.

Marinette gave him a hard glare before rolling her eyes and turning her seat back to look away from him again. Chat sighed. He found a plate of cookies on the table that were meant for Tikki and assumed he could have them himself.

He picked one up and said breezily. "It's been a long day hasn't it princess?"

Marinette didn’t feel like talking, so she picked up her brush and held it up to Chat. "If you're going to be here annoying me, make yourself useful."

Chat was a little surprised by her barking orders. Even as their class president she was kind and reassuring with her demands. Stubbornly he ran with it.

"I'm excellent at knots. Kitty’s got claws to rip them apart," he declared.

"As long as you don't cataclysm them out, I don't care," she said.

Chat was confused as to why she was being harsh with him. If he'd been thinking more clearly, he would have wondered if it was something to do with why Plagg was adamant that they shouldn't go visit her tonight. Alas he wasn’t using his head, but following his heart, and hearts have a terrible habit of refusing to believe they're wrong, even when they are.  
Chat ran his hand against her hair to get a feel for what he was doing. He bit his bottom lip uncertainly. The cookie in his other hand crumbled a little, and he was worried about getting it into her hair. There was only one place close enough for him to get rid of it without being messy.

"Cookie?"

Marinette turned to stare at the chocolate chip cookie he was offering her. Her stomach knotted anxiously. He didn’t say it like Luka did, he didn't call her that either, but her mind wandered back to the night of the concert. _he’s never given me cookies...._ Chat Noir was blissfully ignorant as to why she seemed so shocked and fearful at the idea if being given this cookie, so smiled warmly to encourage her to take it. Hesitantly, she did.

"I shouldn't anyway, I'm on a diet," he said.

Marinette stared at the cookie while Chat caressed her hair so gently she barely felt it. He eased the bands out of her hair and set them to one side. Each time he curled a hand around a bunch of hair strands she felt the tip of his claws brush against her neck. It was like having someone draw lightly on your skin with a needle tip. Her mind was entirely on the cookie.  
It was more than just a cookie.  
It was the same kind of cookie Luka had given her for Tikki.  
Marinette whined softly. She knew she wasn't supposed to fall for Luka, but when he visited her as Chat it was difficult not to become attached. Chat was her partner. He - for lack of a better explanation - completed her. As much as she loved Luka, Chat Noir knew her better.

But he had punched Chloe.

He was a hero of the city, preaching respect for all - even Chloe - and he punched her. Marinette felt the heat in her cheeks rise at the audacity of it. Chat lifted her hair high near her scalp so tugging out knots wouldn’t pull her skin too.

"Let me know if it hurts, I'm trying to be gentle, but I might make a mistake," he said.

"A mistake? Like punching Chloe?" Marinette asked sharply.

Chat frowned in confusion. "Punching Chloe?"

"Cut it out Luka, I know it’s you," Marinette huffed.

Chat dropped the hairbrush in surprise and it clattered to the floor. "What?!"

Marinette turned in her seat to face him again, "I figured it out ages ago, you can’t make me love you more by being my hero twice."

The confusion and mild offence subsided for a momentary ray of hope. "I'm your hero?"

"You were until you punched Chloe," Marinette huffed.

Chat shook his head urgently, he couldn’t stand to see her disappointed in him, "No, no Marinette-"

Marinette stood to her feet and started pacing. "I know she's a brat, but it was unnecessary. All of us have learnt how to deal with her by now, you didn’t need to punch her!"

"Marinette-" Chat tried to interrupt but couldn’t.

"And you don’t need to defend me. You said it yourself, I've always been good at speaking for myself, and that's what I did! That’s what we all did! No fists needed!"

"Seriously, Marinette-"

"I know you always think talking makes things complicated, but sometimes it’s the only thing that will clear something up. You don't need to get physical instead-"

"Mari-"

"Like when you climbed onto my balcony that night with your guitar, you said you didn’t want to come into my room because you didn't want that temptation, but here you are, in my room, in the middle of the night, while I'm not even in my pyjamas yet!"

"I'm not-"

"Not that I even want to put on my pyjamas tonight. They'll remind me of Ladybug today and I just -"

Suddenly everything changed. Marinette stopped pacing and ran a hand through her hair, messing up what Chat had just brushed. There was something more tangled than her hair beneath her scalp. She slowed down and the anger simmered away into something close to fear.

"Everyone has so much faith in her. Everyone. Even you trust her with your life enough to sacrifice yourself for it. All of them did. All of my friends, all of my classmates, they sacrificed themselves for m- Ladybug to rescue Chloe-"

"Or to rescue each other?" Chat reminded her.

There was a lot of sacrifices made earlier. Rose went out of her way to make sure Chloe was safe, even though it meant putting herself in danger. Ivan held them back to give Adrien time to get everyone safe, even though he had no idea what was going to happen to him. Everyone thought Adrien sacrificed himself when he saved Chloe, but Kim and Max really did. And then Nino... Chat knew Ladybug would save them, but Nino's sacrifice still hurt. They always joked about how much Nino loved Alya, but today the jokes stopped.

"Each and every one of them gave themselves up, even Chloe... Sometimes I think people forget that Ladybug is a person too. Yeah she can save people from akumas, and she's smart enough to figure out how so everyone trusts her, but she’s just a person... people break too... trust with them..." Marinette's voice cracked.

Chat Noir stood up and wrapped an arm around her gently, "Marinette?"

Marinette sniffed hard and pushed him away. "Go home Luka. I'm not in the mood tonight."

Chat gulped back his nerves as he stared at the back of her head. "Marinette?"

"What?" She sighed.

"I'm not Luka."

Even though he couldn’t see her face he felt her roll her eyes. It hurt a little that she didn’t believe him, especially after all she said about trust, but he couldn’t blame her. He'd have to say he wasn’t Luka even if he was. No one could know the truth.

"Whatever. Go home," she said.

"I'm serious! How could I be when Luka was still chained up in the bottom of the Liberty when I arrived? Ask any of them - ask Alya! He was a victim and I was on deck with you," Chat urged.

Marinette frowned. She turned to look at him, "Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm kitten?" Chat asked.

Marinette's eyes widened with confusion and surprise. Her mind was spinning. "But- but I thought-"

"You seriously thought _I_ was Luka?" Chat snorted.

Marinette shifted sheepishly, "Well yeah..."

"How long have you been thinking that nonsense?" Chat smiled softly.

"I dunno, a month or so maybe... you started visiting more after I started dating Luka, and I thought..."

Chat gulped again. He couldn’t tell her the only reason he started visiting after she started dating Luka was jealously. First because he thought Luka liked his lady, and then because he realised he liked Lukas lady. He had to change the subject. Fast.

"There seems to be a lot on your mind right now. Is that what's keeping you up so late?" He asked gently.

"I'm just... I'm scared kitty..." she confessed. "I'm scared what happened today will happen again and Ladybug won't be strong enough to fight it."

Chat held out a hand for her to take. He squeezed hers gently. "Don't be. As long as Ladybug is in Paris, she'll be brave enough, and strong enough to fight anything. And when she stumbles, I'll be there to make sure she doesn't fall. And if I fail, Rena Rouge is there to catch her. Nothing’s going to happen to Paris while you have your heroes here to help."

Marinette's stomach twisted. She liked the idea of Rena being there to catch her when she fell, but right now Rena didn’t have a miraculous. If Marinette needed her, she wouldn't be able to help.

"What if Rena can't?"

"I've met that girl, she's stubborn and so intelligent, and very, very determined. Rena can do anything she sets her mind to," Chat smirked.

A small smile escaped Marinette. Chat clearly caught the essence of Rena as quickly as he could, and he came up with Alya. Not that he knew that of course.

"But-"

"Shall we dance?"

Marinette frowned. "What?"

"Dancing always makes me feel better," Chat said, pulling her hand forward so she had to follow.

"Dancing?" Marinette raised an eyebrow.

"Don’t be snarky. I once danced off an entire police force to protect my lady. I'm an excellent dancer," Chat puffed out his chest proudly.

"Oh fine, nothing else has made me feel any better," Marinette sighed.

Adrien was used to ballroom dancing even with his friends trying to teach him other dances. Chat bowed to Marinette and held out a hand. She took it. He pulled her closer as he straightened up and held her there, in the position Alya had once put them in. It started out fine. Tikki switched on the radio, although kept it low so Marinette’s parents wouldn't hear, and the music ran across the floor like dead leaves in the road, sweeping around their feet as they moved. Close to his chest made the rumble tickle against her own. Soft and warm. She bit back a giggle. It was comforting to have him close. Purring was always comforting. Holding her this close though meant that she could just about hear the soft purring he couldn’t hold back, and every now and then his claw would catch her skin. Tiny little red scratches formed along her forearms, but neither of them noticed. It wasn't until he tried to dip her that he noticed the blood trickling down her fingers.

"Are you ok?!" he gasped.

"What? Oh wow look at that!" she laughed, lifting her arm to watch the blood run.

"It must be my claws, I'm so sorry!"  he urged.

"No really Chat it's fine, I'm fine, really," she insisted.

"Let me clean them up," he insisted.

Chat pulled her gently towards the chair and hurried away to find a cloth to use for the cleaning. Marinette shook her head a little. It was silly how alarmed he was that he had hurt her. They were only small and barely noticeable scratches. Chat knelt beside her, damp cloth in hand, and reached to clean her cuts. Then he hesitated. Marinette reached forward and cupped his cheek gently. She heard his breath sharply intake, and his eyes widened. Marinette ran her thumb down his cheek and gently raised his head to look her in the eye.

"Stop worrying about me like this. These don't hurt. I'm fine. Don’t worry," she whispered gently.

He gulped. Her fingers against his cheek took his breath away. Her lips were so close now. He only needed to lean forward to-

Chat linked his fingers through hers and lowered it to rest on her knee.

"Let me clean you anyway," he said softly.

Marinette gave a small nod, and Chat picked up the damp cloth. He cupped her hand from underneath and dabbed at the blood as gently as he could. For a moment they both silently watched the action. Then she cleared her throat.

"Sorry I thought you were Luka," she said.

"At least you never tried to kiss me to find out," he joked.

"That'd be an awkward thing to explain to him," she said.

"For sure," he smiled.

Again there was another silent pause between them for a while before she spoke again.

"You know, I thought I loved him," she whispered.

His heart missed a beat. "Y-You love him?"

"I thought I loved him. Back when we were dancing in the rain..." she said, wistfully. "I came back into class leaving puddles behind me. Chloe took the mick, Adrien wouldn't look at me, Alya was complaining that I made her books damp, I was told off for being soaking and I had to borrow Nino's spare jacket to keep warm, but I didn’t care. I was so happy..."

"I like it when you're happy,” Chat whispered.

"But I thought you were him," Marinette repeated.

"So?"

"So what if I love him because I spend so much time with you?"

This was the perfect chance for Adrien to tell her he liked her. Maybe that was enough to crack her and Luka's relationship and form their own...

Chat cleared his throat awkwardly. "You know Marinette-"

He met her gaze and suddenly saw the uncertainty and desperation in her eyes. She didn’t understand what she felt, and she wanted answers. Telling her he loved her as Chat would make more problems. Too much confusion. She didn’t need Chat. She needed Adrien. No. She needed Luka. Someone who knew he loved her and only her.

"It /is possible for a girl and a boy to be friends and nothing more," he finished.

Marinette's shoulders sagged. She sighed and folded her arms across her chest. "I think I was being hard on him. On Luka."

"Are you sure? He did punch one of your classmates," Chat reminded her.

"Yeah I know, but we've all thought about punching Chloe before, and words never seem to go anywhere. Actions are louder than words. If Ladybug hadn't spoken to her after she got punched I'm not sure she would have made her sacrifice today... it might be something pushing her to be a better person," she said uncertainly.

Chat raised an eyebrow. "Ladybug spoke to her?"

"Yeah, I um, I heard them when I went to check up on her," Marinette lied.

"That's nice of her," Chat smiled.

"She’s a nice person," Marinette nodded.

"So are you," Chat pointed out.

"So is Chloe deep down. Deep, /deep down. Still it’s a shame it means we can’t have our dance," Marinette sighed.

"What dance?" Chat asked.

"I asked Mr Damocles  if we could have a school dance because I was feeling good and Luka and I are great at dancing in the rain-"

Chat shook his head and muttered to himself, a little bitterly, "In the rain."

"And it'd be the perfect platform for the band to play a couple songs since all of them go to our school, and Adrien could even come and spend some time with us because it's school and it's his band, so his father knows he'd be safe..."

Chat Noir's head snapped up urgently when he heard her mention his name. Marinette didn't notice. She was still watching the way he dabbed his arm. She wondered why he'd slowed down, but it was only for a second, so she ignored it.

"Adrien never gets to spend any time having fun with us. It’s not fair to him. You should have seen him on stage with Luka, I've never seen someone look so happy before. Especially not him," She sighed.

"You really care about Adrien huh?" Chat said, failing not to smile.

"Probably more than I should, but he was my Ladybug," She said.

"You mean he was everything you wanted for so long you don’t understand what you feel for someone else?" Chat swore inwardly. If only he'd known then.

"Luka and I were never supposed to be permanent because I thought I was in love with Adrien, but dating Luka made me see what I want is to be loved back as much as I love them... Luka loves me too much for me to love him back," She said.

"I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who love you Marinette. And I'm sure some of them aren’t even akumatized!" Chat teased.

"Oh poor Nathanael," Marinette laughed.

The laughter was only momentary but hearing it, no matter how shortly, made Chat Noir smile affectionately.

"But if Luka makes you happy right now, if he really and truly makes you happy, then what’s so bad about that? You deserve someone who wants you to be happy even it hurts them," he said quietly.

"He deserves someone who makes him happy," she sighed.

Chat's chest ached. He wanted Marinette to be happy. To laugh like she had a few minutes ago. He started a mental rant about how wonderful she was and how many different ways she made him happy and he wanted to make her happy, but he said none of them. Instead he finished cleaning her cuts and rose to his feet.

"It's getting late. You need some sleep. At least there’s no school in the morning so you can have a lie in. A cat nap if you will," he forced a smile.

"I won’t," she teased.

"Break my heart then, see if I care," he smiled more genuinely.

"Goodnight kitty. Get home safe," Marinette warned.

"Of course I will," he laughed.

"I'm serious, be careful, I don't want you to get hurt," she insisted.

Chat could have cackled, but he could also had collapsed in agony like his chest was begging him to. He gave her a small smile just close enough between the two that she couldn't tell which way he was leaning.

"You're so funny Marinette. I'll be careful. I pawmise," he said.

She didn’t seem convinced, but she wasn’t going to stop him. "Goodnight kitty."

"Sweet dreams princess," he said.

...

Chat Noir lingered on the top of his baton as he tried to find the latch of the window and heave it open. The moment that he pushed it up he froze and waited. Silence. No security alarms started blaring like he expected them to. Then again chances were no one thought anyone would break in from up here. Chat Noir slipped inside and shut the window behind him.  
It was still in here. Quiet. Everything looked just it always did, but quieter. It was eerie. He didn’t like it. Any house with Chloe Bourgeois in it should be loud and full of life. Usually it was. He still remembered the way to Chloe’s bedroom even after all this time. He also knew, given what time it was, she would still be awake playing video games she pretended never to play, in the privacy of her bedroom.

Chat knocked gently and called through the door, "Chloe? You about?"

The door swung open and Chloe scowled at him. "Chat Noir? What are you doing here?"

After time wore away the shock of the face mask making her look like Shrek, he cleared his throat uncertainly.

"I’ve got a favour to ask."


	12. Chapter 12

Luka leapt off of the wall when he saw Marinette heading this way. It'd been a couple of days since the incident and they hadn’t spoken. Not for lack of trying. Kagami had spent all of her free time - so lunch really - trying to explain to him how and why punching Chloe was wrong, even in defence of Marinette. While he didn’t agree with most of them, there was one she mentioned that he couldn't get out of his head. Every time he thought about it, he felt worse, and he desperately needed to talk to Marinette about it. Unfortunately she wouldn't answer his calls, so he had to take matters into his own hands. Since she wasn’t at the bakery when he called by, and he didn’t want to linger on her balcony only to be thrown out as soon as she found him, he waited here on the wall outside.

"Hey Marinette..."

Now that Marinette and Luka had to stand next to each other and actually face up to what they felt. For Marinette it was the moment of truth as to whether or not she loved him. For him, well when he saw her the nerves got the better of him and he forgot everything he wanted to tell her. Fortunately for him, the last few days of stressing out about every interaction with Adrien like she used to have exhausted her, and she realised how lucky she was to have something so easy with Luka.

"Call me cookie."

Luka lit up with shocked relief, "Does that mean we're good?"

Marinette smiled softly. "Yeah we're good."

He sighed with relief. Releasing the tension in his shoulders sank him to above half his size. "Thank God! Having Juleka mad at me was enough, having both of you mad at me was torture."

"Juleka was mad at you?" Marinette asked in surprise.

"Yeah, she wouldn’t even let me borrow her nail varnish," Luka said.

It was a surprise that Juleka could ever be annoyed at her brother. She seemed to love him more than anyone else. Except of course Rose. Not to mention how much Chloe had bullied her too over the years, and what she'd done on photo day. Although that explained why Chloe was suddenly wearing gold and black nail varnish the other day. Juleka must have given it to her to apologise for her brother. It was more surprising the Chloe had accepted it.   
Maybe Chloe had listened to Ladybug.

"I had to use Kagami’s expensive gels. It was weird," Luka smirked.

Suddenly the tightness in Marinette's chest returned. In her mind, Luka liked someone else. Although she had no proof, and up till now had no idea who, it was something she'd believed simply because Chat said it and she thought he was Chat. Now she heard him mention Kagami something clicked in her head.

"K- err, Kagami? You hang out with her?" She asked.

"Sure, we've been chatting a lot since she started meeting up with Adrien," Luka shrugged.

"Oh."

Marinette didn’t want to hold him back if he wanted to leave this relationship. That was their deal after all. But she never thought he'd be the one to leave, and she defiantly never thought it'd be for Kagami. She wasn't thrilled to lose him, but part of her was pleased he found someone who could love him back in the same way he deserved.

"Is that a bad oh or a good oh?" Luka asked uncertainly.

Marinette had no idea so she tried not to lean too heavily either way. "No, it’s just an oh."

"Good," Luka said as he laid his hands against her upper arms, and explained seriously, "Kagami helped me to see that even though I thought I was protecting you and being a good boyfriend, I was just showing you that I can be unnecessarily violent, even in public, which might raise concerns about us being in private..."

Luka trailed off. It hurt to even imply that he could be anything like that. He knew he could never let a finger on Marinette to hurt her in any way, but if she didn't...

Marinette loomed shocked at the suggestion. "I didn't actually consider that side of things."

"Well don’t. I would never hurt you, I promise, I couldn't!" He insisted.

"But you did hurt Chloe," Marinette said uncertainly.

"I'll apologise to her too, I just wanted you to know I'm sorry," Luka promised.

"Right. It’s just that... well..." Marinette took a deep breath as she tried to think of how to explain herself properly. "my class is kinda like a second family to me and while Chloe is mean and kind of a bully, she’s family."

"Kagami didn’t explain that," Luka admitted.

"How could she know? How could you know? You’ve both been home schooled all your lives; how could you expect to understand the intricacies of school life?" Marinette asked.

Luka didn't understand. Luka didn't like that he didn't understand. Luka was home schooled because when he didn't understand he got defensive, and sometimes overly stroppy. Right now he was getting defensive. He yanked his hands away from her.

"Adrien was home schooled once."

"Adrien's learning to adapt."

"Yeah I hear he's great at adapting," Luka rolled his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Marinette frowned.

"Nothing, I've just heard that he's moved on from whatever crush he used to have and now he's got one on someone he can't have," Luka said sharply.

"And why does that bother you?" Marinette asked.

"It doesn't. Why would it bother me what that pretty boy does? He's so XY and I'm more Jagged Stone. He’s no threat!" Luka huffed.

Marinette stared at him for a while. She didn't want to argue again so soon after making up, but she had no idea what was going on right now either.

"Lukey I've just got Chloe to start thinking about why she's doing bad things and what she could do instead which is really time consuming in class, I don't wanna deal with it at home too. Please, if you've got a problem, just tell me."

Luka was tentative. He still thought about how she used to feel about Adrien and he was uncertain about how he felt about Kagami. After all the effort they had put into accepting each other, Luka was slightly afraid of losing Marinette. He was fearful of ending up like his parents and splitting up in front of the kids. If he had spoken to Marinette about it, maybe she could have eased his mind, but there was fear holding him back that kept his mouth shut.

"No problem. I'm just... I'm sorry," he said.

Marinette didn't seem convinced, but she didn’t want to stay mad at him anymore. Talking to Chat made her realise she had no idea how to clean up the mess they had made, but she wanted to. She wanted this all to end. End happily. Marinette stepped forward and pulled his shirt forward gently to hug him. Her arms weaved under his jacket to press herself against his chest. Luka wrapped his arms around her shoulders in return to pull her in gently. For a moment they cradled against each other, taking in the bitter-sweetness. Something about this felt like the beginning of the end. Both of them knew it deep down, but they didn’t want to voice it.

"Can we go dancing in the park again?" Marinette whispered.

Her voice echoed through his ribs like a soft rumble. In return the gentle but constantly beat of his heart tried to once again match her own. The Morse code between them was getting tangled with interference now. It was less clear. Less in tune. Even so, Luka gave a gentle nod.

"It won't be so much fun without the rain," she said.

He cupped her chin gently and raised it up so he could get closer to her mouth, "I don't care about the rain, as long as I have you."

"Are you trying to butter me up?" Luka smirked.

"No, I know what buttering up a baker’s daughter’s boyfriend leads to," Marinette couldn’t hide her smile.

Luka smiled back, but the confusion in his eye was further clarification that this was not Chat Noir. "You do huh?"

"Give me a minute to put my bag in my room, and I'll meet you back down here so we can go dancing," Marinette said.

She pulled away from him and hurried over towards the bakery door and Luka leaned back against the wall behind him. He gulped as he watched her go.

"Hey Marinette?" He called.

She stopped and flipped her hair to turn back towards him. "Yeah Lukey?"

"I do love you," he said.

There was a desperately genuine tone in his voice that froze Marinette a little inside. There was a difference between loving someone and being in love with them... Marinette took a deep breath.

"I know. I love you too."

Luka smiled softly, like he could read her mind. "I know."

Marinette lingered a little longer as they held eye contact. Both held their smiles too, but there was something fragile about them. Then Marinette left.   
In the alley behind the bakery, Chat's tail swished against the dirt of the ground. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, before slinking back to hide in the shadows. Luka leaned against the wall and watched the door bounce shut behind Marinette. There was a new sense of uneasy hope in his chest right now, whereas Chat's was heavy with the weight of his heart. Chat sank to the floor against the wall behind him. He ran his hands over his face and clutched onto his hair as the pain ran through him.

"This is for the best right now, believe me," Plagg whispered from inside his miraculous.

Chat pulled his hands away from his hair and leaned his head back against the wall. "At least she's happy..."

"I told you not to come back," Plagg said softly.

Plagg’s voice was tiny and heavy. He was talking more to himself than to Adrien right now. he hated seeing his kittens hurt, but Adrien seemed to be constantly drawn to the pain. It wasn’t fair. Not to either of them. Chat gulped back a ball forming in his throat and stood up. His hand was shaking as he reached for his baton. He had to take a few deep breaths to stabilise himself. Chat felt a burning pain in his chest and he hated himself for feeling this way.

Marinette pulled on her jacket as she came out of the bakery. Chat’s breath caught in his throat as he realised she hadn’t seen the stone on the floor. He knew what she was like. On cue Marinette stumbled. Chat leapt to his feet and stepped forward, ready to catch her – when she fell into Luka’s arms. Luka’s soft laugh was audible from here, and Marinette’s pink cheeks burned through Chat’s chest. Chat knew he had to leave.  
Marinette lit up when she spotted her partner dragging his tail between his legs as he turned away from here. his ears were drooping, and his head was low. Her smile faded. He seemed hurt. She straightened up and dusted herself down, preparing to chase after him. before she could take her first step he was leaping away. She bit her bottom lip nervously. A spark of guilt in her chest confused her. Luka linked his arm around Marinette's waist and pulled her closer as he realised she wasn’t paying attention to him again.

"Marinette? Did you hear me?" Luka asked.

Marinette shook her head and looked up at him in confusion, "Sorry, what?"

"Chloe texted me. She's throwing a party at the hotel and she wants the band to play there," Luka said.

Just like that Chat Noir was out of her head as she frowned at the news. "She’s throwing a party at the hotel?"

"Yeah, a dance. Apparently someone convinced her it'd be a good way to apologise for everything she's done," Luka explained.

"Wait - Chloe's saying sorry for everything she's done?" Marinette asked.

"Yeah, but you're missing the big question," Luka said.

Marinette put her hand on her hips and raised an eyebrow at him, "Bigger than Chloe Bourgeois inviting the boy who punched her in the face and his band to play at a dance she's throwing to say sorry for everything she's done? What question could that be?!"

"How did she get my number?"

…

Over the next week or so Marinette spent more time with Alya and Nino. Luka missed a day or two of lunches to spend them elsewhere, Marinette didn’t question where. She was trying hard to keep this cold and yet burning ache in her chest away, but whenever she thought of Chat Noir it got worse and she couldn’t get him out of her head. To Alya and Nino it was becoming obvious that Marinette and Luka were drifting apart, but Adrien was still blind to it. Until he found her sitting on the wall at the top of the school steps watching him one lunch time. Adrien frowned at her in confusion and wandered over.

"Be careful you don’t fall," he warned.

"I won’t," she said, not turning to look at him.

"I watched you fall walking in a straight line on a flat surface," Adrien reminded her.

His small smile was to try and show her he wasn’t aching inside. He tried to tease her and take her attention which he craved so desperately now she was back with Luka, but he refused to go to her house as Chat Noir. It hurt more than he cared to admit. Although this hurt too.

“You’d fall over standing still if it were possible. Maybe even if it’s not possible, you’re too amazing for rules,” he forced his smile to try and tease her again, but she didn’t even glance his way.  

"I won’t fall," she said firmly.

Adrien frowned. He turned his head to follow her gaze. Luka and Kagami were standing by the road, pretending to fence. Kagami kept telling him to mind his feet every now and then, and he would remind her they were using sticks they'd found in the park on their walk over here. Oh yeah, since they were meeting up with their friends every Wednesday anyway, Kagami had started changing her route to go past the river where Luka had started to wait for her so they could walk together. Adrien and Marinette were unaware of this.

"Are… Are you ok?" Adrien asked.

"Luka always looks so happy when he's with Kagami. Plus she's smart and pretty and determined and good with a sword... They could make a cute couple don’t you think?" Marinette asked.

He didn’t like the idea of Marinette being jealous. He'd seen what it did to Chloe, he knew what it did to him, and he was suspicious he'd seen it on Ladybug too. Jealously was ugly. He didn’t want Marinette to suffer from it.

"Don’t be jealous of Kagami. She's got everything a girl could want and a mother to control it all. You’re better off," he promised.

"Luka lives in a boat, sharing a room with his little sister, where there aren’t any rules and sometimes both he and his mother forget that it’s a school day, so they don't do lessons. Luka is smart. He needs someone in control to make sure he gets what he needs," Marinette explained.

It wasn't jealousy. Not really. Maybe she felt a little jealous about how easily those two got on, but she was far too busy trying to think of ways to stop Luka being hurt to be jealous of anything. With her distracted and Kagami entertaining Luka, she wasn’t a burden, she was a relief.

"I've never seen Kagami look so free. Maybe having someone who is so uncontrolled is good for her to loosen up," Adrien said thoughtfully.

Finally Marinette turned to look at him. "So you agree? They'd be good together?"

"Does it matter? You're dating him," Adrien shrugged.

Marinette nodded but she didn’t sound happy. "I know. I love him. I want him to be happy."

"So why are you worried?" Adrien asked.

Marinette bit her lip. She didn't want to tell him she was worried about Chat Noir, because then she'd have to explain why she was friends with Chat Noir and run the risk of exposing Ladybug. Instead, she changed the subject.

"Wanna go get lunch together?" She asked.

Adrien wanted a lunch date with Marinette more than anything in the world, but he knew what it meant when people started dodging questions. He did it enough with Natalie.

"Marinette I'm worried about you," he said seriously.

"That’s sweet. There’s no need," she smiled.

Adrien wasn’t satisfied. "Marinette why are you trying to stop yourself from being happy? You said you love him. I see how much he makes you smile. I remember when you came in and you were soaked to the bone and you had to borrow Nino's clothes, what happened to that happiness?"

Marinette looked at Adrien like she wanted to burst into tears. Before he could dig any deeper and tear up the tangled roots of her emotions, damage control appeared.

"Marinette?" Nino called.

Marinette swallowed back the back in her throat and flashed him a grin. "Hey Nino. Want to go to lunch? Double date?"

Alya gung an arm around Adrien's shoulders. "You two go, I'll make sure grumpy here gets himself fed."

"I'll be fine I'm-" Adrien began.

"That’s fine by me," Nino interrupted.

"Great! See you back in class," Alya grinned.

Somewhere along the way Nino and Alya had discovered that their partners best friends were easier to deal with. Maybe it was just the juxtaposition of their genders, or learning more about their partner via their best friend, or because their history was cleaner, and they knew less secrets, so they were less judgemental - well Alya was never going to tell Nino Marinette broke into the boy’s lockers to steal Adrien's phone, was she? Nino would judge wrongly because he didn’t have the right context - but for whatever reason it worked better this way.

At the cafe, Nino handed Luka some money and said, "You get the food, Mari and I will go save a seat."

Marinette just smiled and nodded so Luka didn't have much choice but to nod back.

"Um sure," he said.

Nino practically dragged Marinette to the furthest back table, so they could talk with no risk of Luka over hearing. Nino have time for pleasantries.

"Do you really see Kagami and Luka getting together?" He asked.

"I don’t know. maybe?" Marinette muttered.

Nino groaned at her flippancy. She was so busy acting like the puppeteer she didn't notice the fact that they weren't dealing with puppets. Luka and Kagami were people. Real people. Marinette got defensive when he reacted to her.

"It’s not a crazy idea! she's pretty and he's handsome, and they're both sweet and kind and they make each other laugh-"

"But are you just doing it so he will have someone to settle for when you break up with him?" Nino asked.

Marinette gulped and hung her head. "Is that bad?"

"You can't treat people like you can just pass them off when you're done with them. That’s not how relationships work," Nino said.

"Well they don't have to date straight away!" Marinette argued, "Kagami is a lovely girl but I never see her with a friend other than Adrien, maybe she doesn’t have any. And Luka's about to need someone he can lean on when I leave him. I'd trust Juleka to do it, but if Luka wants to curse my name or insult me in frustration-"

Nino interrupted with a shake of his head. "I don’t think he’s the type of boy who would do that."

Marinette wasn’t about to be talked out of this though. "Juleka would need some help. Someone else to support him. Kagami can be there when he need someone. He can be there when she needs someone too. The gentleman Kagami's mother is looking for, and the rebel that Kagami needs to shake up her life."

Marinette thought she was making excellent points, but Nino's deadpan face gave her no such agreement. He barely even reacted once she had finished speaking but said, seriously, "You've thought about this too much."

Her shoulders sank low and she sighed heavily. "I just don't want to hurt him when I leave him. I don’t want him to suffer alone."

Nino hated seeing her like this. She was so torn up inside that she had no idea what to do other than force Luka to love someone else. Hey, it worked when Nino had a crush on her right? But that didn’t necessarily mean it would work for Luka too. It definitely wasn’t working for her, jumping from crush to crush until she tangled herself like a marionette. Nino smirked at his comparison.   
At least he made himself laugh.

...

Alya set down her phone and looked up at Adrien with a blaze in her eyes that anyone else would have recognised as the eyes of someone who had just found out some juicy gossip. Adrien didn’t see that.

"Nino just texted me, Marinette and Luka are going to the dance separately!" Alya said in a gossipy tone, as if it was scandalous.

Adrien stopped listening after "Luka" so shrugged. "So what?"

Alya rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. "If you don’t understand that we need to start giving you classes on important things for a change."

"What dance is this?" Kagami asked curiously.

"Chloe's throwing a dance to apologise for being a massive bitc-"

"Alya."

"For being a pain all these years."

Kagami chuckled to herself at the warnings Adrien gave so easily to Alya and how quickly Alya changed to fit them. She found herself wondering how long they'd been friends.

"Wanna come? It's on Saturday," Alya offered.

"Would I have to wear a dress?" Kagami asked uncertainly.

"I guess you could, you don't have to though," Alya promised.

"Are you going to wear a dress?" Kagami asked, still uncertainly.

Alya’s eyes lit up, "Ooh, you know what we should do? We should wear the merch Mari designed!"

Adrien looked just as confused as Kagami. "What merch?"

"Marinette was making merch for the Kitten Corner-" Alya began.

"My band," Adrien interrupted.

Kagami looked surprised, "You’re in a band?"

Adrien ran a hand through his hair sheepishly, "Its... it’s not a big part of my life..."

"Whatever you and Luka are both playing the party so you’ve gotta be there," Alya shrugged.

"You’re in a band with Luka?" Kagami was a lot more interested now.

"I play keyboard. It’s just like the piano," Adrien shrugged.

"Impressive," Kagami smiled.

Adrien shrugged a little sheepishly, "Um thanks."

"Well Marinette designed some shirts and stuff for the band, I'll bet if we asked her to make some she'd do it and we could all wear them to support the band!" Alya insisted.

"Most of our class is _in_ the band," Adrien laughed.

"How funny would it be if we could get Chloe in one?!" Alya beamed.

"Alya don’t push your luck," Adrien warned.

"Too late - I'm calling Marinette!"

Luka and Nino watched with blatant curiosity as her face went through a range of emotions. From the other end they could hear Alya's excited planning.

"You want to wear my merch?" Marinette said uncertainly.

"What merch?" Luka asked quietly.

"I designed some merch for your band-" Marinette began.

Luka's face lit up, "You did? We have the great Marinette of Jagged Stone's album designing our little bands merchandise?! Wow, I'm in awe!"

"They're not great designs," Marinette blushed sheepishly.

"Come on now cookie, you made them. They're gonna be great," Luka grinned.

"I can help you if you desperately need it, I'm not great but I made that Rena Rouge hoodie and-" Nino began.

"I remember!" She interrupted.

Marinette knew exactly which orange and white handmade hooded monstrosity that he was talking about. It was kind of tatty and the edges weren't hemmed right, but it was easily fixable and made with so much love. Alya hated it. Although she didn't object to the denim jacket emblazoned with an orange and brown paw print in the centre and "Foxy Lady" circling it, the F with fox ears and the second Y with a tail. Perhaps that’s because Nino had commissioned Marinette to create it.

"So you'll do it?!" Alya asked excitedly.

"It’s not that simple..." Marinette said.

"Why?" Adrien asked.

Marinette blushed. She hadn’t realised she was on loudspeaker at Alya's end of things. She stared down at the table as Nino and Luka stared at her, wondering what could possibly be the problem.

"I... I got distracted by Chat Noir and gave all the designs a kind of... um... Chat Noir based hood..." she muttered.

Adrien lit up like a Christmas tree. "You did?!"

Marinette flushed deeper which made Luka raise an eyebrow. "Shut up, he was right there distracting me, and he did it deliberately so I -"

"I’m sure it wasn’t deliberate," Adrien argued, mildly defensively which made Alya raise an eyebrow.

"Oh it was, trust me," Marinette said firmly.

"Hey, Marinette, Chat Noir is awesome-" Luka began.

"Agreed!" Adrien chimed in.

"And your designs are awesome, even Jagged Stone thinks so. Its only us that'll see them anyway. Please do it?" Luka urged.

"Yeah girl!" Alya called.

"Please do it!" Adrien begged.

"Come on Mari, you know you wanna," Nino smirked.

"Oh fine!" Marinette caved. "Nino you're gonna have to come over tonight and help!"

"No problem! Alya, I can’t make movie night," Nino said.

"I'll live," you could hear her grin down the phone.

"It will be interesting to see your designs in person Marinette, I’ve heard many good things," Kagami said politely.

"Are you coming to the dance too Kagami?" Luka asked.

Marinette shot a sideways glance at Nino, who chose not to notice.

"I am, Alya invited me," Kagami nodded.

"Just text me your sizes and I'll make sure yours fits you perfectly," Marinette said.

"Thank you Marinette," Kagami said.

"Sure thing," Marinette said.

Luka beamed proudly at Marinette and declared, "This is going to be a great night!"


	13. Chapter 13

Chloe approached Marinette and the others at the door of the hotel with her arms out wide and the biggest fake grin she could possibly muster. After all, she was doing this for Chat Noir. He’d definitely tell Ladybug how far she’d come! Even being nice to this lot had to be worth that.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome, what a delight to have you here. The coat room's over there if you wanna take off that ugly coat."

A very quiet, almost unnoticeable but very pointed cough came from the inside pocket of Chloe's yellow jacket. She looked surprised for a moment and then forced a smile.

"I mean, um, you can leave your coats in the coat room over there. Ugly or not. Which yours, um... isn’t... ENJOY!"

As she turned to leave a beam of light caught on the golden bee shaped hair comb that held a sweep of hair into place and made it glint. Marinette smirked to herself as she recognised it. Master Fu had found an easier way to teach Chloe, without having to deal with Chloe. That explained the drastic lack of akumas recently.

"Where'd you want the band to set up?" Adrien asked.

Kwami or no Kwami the sarcasm flowed effortlessly from Chloe’s tongue. "Where'd you think?"

"Is anyone else here yet?" Alya asked.

"Cookie!"

When Luka appeared, he came from behind the curtains. He leapt off stage, making his hoodie flap like a cape, and dash over to Marinette to scoop her up into a hug. Preshow nerves were clearly not getting to him. Adrien noted Chloe's glare at Luka. She didn't want to turn her nose up at him like everyone expected her to, but it was painfully obvious she wasn’t happy to see him. You could understand why. Adrien's attention was pulled away by a familiar sight of red as Kagami stepped out from behind the curtains too.

"Hello," she waved.

"Err, Kagami, hi," Adrien smiled.

Marinette turned to Nino and whispered, "Believe me now?"

"People aren’t puppets Marinette," Nino whispered back.

Luka was buzzing. That much was obvious. His chilled-out demeanour had become overly helpful and happy to see everyone.

"Great to see you cookie, I'm so excited for tonight!" He turned to Adrien and laid a hand on the bottom of the keyboard, "Need any help carrying that dude?"

Adrien pulled it closer to himself protectively, "Actually-"

"We gotta lug it up here, come on, quick as you like!" Luka beamed.

They watched as Adrien unwillingly allowed Luka to help carry the keyboard up onto the stage where the stand was waiting for it. Alya carefully pulled the paper bag from Marinette's hand, grabbed a couple of shirts from inside with the right name labels pinned to the front, and grabbed Nino's hand. She beamed as she held the shirts close to her chest and lead Nino through the hotel to the closest toilet so they could change. Marinette was left alone. She twisted the handle of the paper bag anxiously as she watched Luka and Adrien bicker over how the keyboard was set up.

Tikki rested a hand on Marinette's to stop her fidgeting. "Marinette can’t you at least try and enjoy yourself?"

Marinette released the bite she hadn’t realised she had on her lip and wondered why it was bleeding. "I need to break up with him fast Tikki. Like ripping off a bandage."

"I know how you feel, but you're becoming paranoid. Just take a moment to relax. Chloe's trying hard to make this a good night, enjoy it. You deserve it for being the one who encouraged her!" Tikki urged.

"All I did was take her to the only person in the city who really understands right and wrong. If anyone gets the credit, it's master Fu," Marinette shrugged.

"That doesn't mean you can't enjoy your time here and have some fun with your friends," Tikki insisted.

"But-"

"Everything else can wait. You're still a person girl, people need a break sometimes!"

Tikki was right and Marinette knew she had to break up with Luka, but that wasn’t the only thing bothering her. No matter how hard she tried, and she was trying hard, she couldn’t get the image of Chat slinking away out of her mind. She couldn’t help worrying about him, and now Chloe wasn’t causing so many akumas she hadn’t had a chance to make sure he was ok. She couldn't get him out of her mind, but she needed to focus on Luka.

Marinette gripped the bag determinedly. "You're right Tikki. I'm going to enjoy this and not think about how badly I'm going to break Lukas heart and ruin his life which will cause Juleka to hate me and Rose to pick sides so I'll lose two of my best friends and everyone else will side with Rose because Rose is an angel and-"

"That's not relaxing Marinette!" Tikki interrupted urgently.

"You're right. Deep breath. Calm," Marinette closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Who you talking to?"

" _EEK_!"

Marinette leapt a foot in the air when Adrien's voice came from so close behind her. Adrien automatically caught and stabilised her. He was used to her clumsiness by now. He snatched his hands away from her as soon as she was safe and bit his lip to hide his pink ears.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you jump," he said.

"N-no, no, it's fine, I was just... doesn't matter," Marinette dusted herself down as she spoke.

Adrien glanced back up at the stage where Luka was quick stepping between all the instruments plugging things in and tuning things up, while endlessly talking to Kagami about it. His green eyes deepened enviously.

"Hey, you ok?" Marinette poked him gently.

Adrien fought hard to keep the blush away. "Y-y-yeah! Yeah, course. Are you ok? Everything good with Luka?"

Marinette looked down at her shoes as her voice rose an octave. "Um..."

Adrien hated how his heart skipped a beat, "Um?"

"No, don’t worry about it, I can deal with it myself," She forced a smile.

Adrien frowned. "If you need help Marinette-"

Marinette took a sharp breath and dug into her bag to find the shirt labelled with his name. "This is your shirt. If you want it I mean, I know you said you did, but like, you look good in what you’re wearing now - well you look good no matter what you wear, that’s why you’re a model but-"

"Its awesome Marinette!" Adrien beamed.

Marinette involuntarily smiled to herself at the sudden reminder of her cat-like partner. At the same time, Adrien - being said cat-like partner - reached for the same pun.

"Pawsome!"

They both snapped eyes on each other in surprise as Adrien's heart thundered somewhere between terrified and love stricken. Had she figured it out? what would he do if she had?  
Suddenly Marinette burst into giggles. Sweet, relieving giggles. Adrien's chest eased. He looked down at the shirt, and couldn’t help smiling. His hand ran along the stitching to cup the pointed black ears on the hood. He hadn't meant to distract her when he found her sketching in the park but inspiring her was something he'd never expected. Alya, Nino and Kagami came wandering over. Alya had swept her hair over one shoulder, and Nino's cap had been removed so underneath it now his hair was messy. Both in matching shirts they looked thrilled. Kagami reached out to touch the hem.

"These are very well done Marinette. You’re very talented," She smiled.

"Thanks Kagami, this one yours," Marinette held out a shirt for her.

As Kagami took it, Adrien slipped his hood on his head so the ears pointed up, and he beamed with his fists on his hip. "Call me cat-man!"

"Or Chat Noir?" Nino offered.

"Aw come on, Chat's way cooler than Adrien!" Marinette grinned.

Adrien's hands fell from his hips. He tried not to look as unsure as he felt about how to feel. On the one hand he was ecstatic she liked Chat Noir so much, on the other he couldn't help feeling deflated at the back handed compliment.

"Err, thanks?"

Marinette’s eyes widened, "N-no, I just mean, um, well, sorry..."

"You're forgiven. I didn’t know you were such a Chat Noir fan," he winked.

She blushed and tried to hide it. "He doesn't get enough love, y’know? Ladybug would be nothing without him."

"I don't know about that," Adrien shrugged.

Marinette smirked. "I do."

Adrien felt a surge of defensiveness on his partners behalf, "Well actually-"

Adrien and Marinette locked eyes and Alya instantly recognized the flame in Marinette’s look. She knew her friends deep see protectiveness on Chat Noir's behalf. To interrupt the argument before it started, she threw an arm in the air and waved at the couple that had just walked in.

"Mylene! Ivan! Over here!"

Mylene waved back and held onto Ivan’s hand as the two of them weaved over to where the girls were waiting. Nino gave Alya an approving nod. Damage control was becoming easier the more practice they had in doing it.

"Oh amazing design Marinette! They're very professional, you did a great job," Luka beamed.

He rifled through her bag for the one with his name and linked an arm around her as he admired it. He and Adrien failed to notice how she flinched when he did. Alya did not. She linked a finger around Nino's, nervous on Marinette's behalf. Marinette glanced over at her for support. In that subtle ways girls have that boys never notice, Alya offered that support. It didn't help much.

Marinette felt a surge of guilt as she looked up at Luka. It had only been two months, but she cared for him so much. She couldn’t stand to hurt him. Still, the sooner it was done...

"Lukey? It's time."

"Time for wh-" Luka's smile faded as he realised why she was biting her lip. "oh. Oh. Alright then."

Luka gulped as Marinette slipped her hand into his. As the two of them walked away it looked as though the world was on their shoulders. Struck by curiosity Adrien moved to follow, but Alya caught his wrist to stop him.

"Let’s give them some space," she said.

"Why? What’s going on?" Adrien asked pointedly.

Alya refused to answer, and instead ushered him towards the stage. "Come on, you've gotta get changed and start your sound checks! You want everyone to hear you right, come on!"

Nino helped Alya to usher everyone into place on stage to give Marinette and Luka privacy, but the two of them had gone into another room to achieve the same goal.

"Ally, what’s happening?" Nino asked quietly.

Alya glanced over to their friends as the door shut behind them and glanced back at the others on the stage to make sure none of them would hear.

She stepped closer to Nino and lowered her voice. "Um, you know how they’re the titanic?"

"Yeah?" Nino's voice was filled with concern.

"Icebergs ahead."

"Oh!"

Nino glanced back at the now shut door. His initial instinct was to run over and stand behind the door, partly to listen in, but mostly to provide Marinette back up if she needed it, but Alya wouldn’t let him.

"Let’s just keep this lot distracted. Then we can limit the damage," Alya said.

"I'll finish handing out shirts, you deal with the technical issues," Nino said.

"What is there isn’t any?"

"Create one!"

"You just read by mind. We make a great team!"

Alya and Nino grinned and high fived at their plan before running to battle stations. For all they knew, a storm was brewing.  
In Marinette's mind at least, there was a storm brewing, and the rain was falling on Luka who, as per usual, didn’t have an umbrella. Luka stood close to Marinette and took a deep breath.

"Wow. This is really happening huh?" He said, failing to lighten the atmosphere. "I guess I always knew this day was coming, but I didn’t see it coming so soon..."

Marinette ached with guilt. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, we agreed at the start you didn’t need to be sorry," Luka shrugged.

Marinette hung her head and wandered over to the bed to sit on it with a sigh. "I do though."

"No, you told me you loved Adrien-"

"That's the thing. I thought I loved Adrien. I really did. But I thought, for a while anyway, that I loved you..."

Luka froze up like a deer in headlights. Marinette's face creased painfully to watch it.

"Huh. So it was real for a while then. That's... great to know," he muttered.

Marinette covered her face and groaned, "I shouldn't have agreed to starting this relationship. I didn't want to hurt you when you first asked, and you said you were ok with Adrien..." she sighed. No matter how much it hurt she had to confess it. "but it was selfish."

Luka immediately shook his head, "No, Mari you could never be-"

"No, it was selfish," Marinette said firmly. "I was desperate for someone to show me love because of how I idolised Adrien, and you came along and I was willing to hurt you even though it never would have worked."

Luka slunk back at how firmly she said it and gulped guiltily. "I'm sorry I put you in that position."

He slumped onto the chair by the desk and Marinette flew to his side to reassure him, "You didn't. You've done nothing wrong - um, except punching Chloe-"

"I'm still sorry about that!" He insisted, grabbing her hand as if that would somehow prove his point.

Marinette patted his hand gently as she peeled it off of him. "I know. Luka none of this your fault. None of it. Alya tried to talk me out of it, but... Well it's too late to go into how right she was now. And hey, you did me a lot of good."

Luka raised an unconvinced eyebrow, "I did?"

"Oh my God yes! I was a mess!" Marinette couldn’t hold back the laugh at how ridiculous that all seemed now. "If you hadn't been there to show me what a healthy relationship should be like, I'd have stolen Adrien's phone again by now."

Luka couldn’t hide his own smirk at that. "I never had you down as a thief."

Marinette shrugged, "I'm trying to be better."

"You're already perfect to me," Luka whispered.

Marinette's hand slipped away from his arm. "I shouldn’t be. After everything I've put you through-"

"You gave me structure. Sleeping right, eating better quality, healthier foods, lugging my guitar around parks for exercise, you helped me get healthy," he said, firmly. Then his shoulders sagged. "Without you everything's just gonna fall apart."

"It doesn’t have to," Marinette urged.

Luka scoffed, "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!" Marinette said stubbornly. "Just keep taking Juleka to school, and meet up with Kagami for lunch sometimes, or whatever. You can keep your structure, you don’t need me."

"It won’t be the same without you though. You help me channel my emotions," he sighed.

"No, your guitar does that," she said firmly. Her voice softened as she added, "You’re talented Luka, really talented. You don’t need me. But if you think you need someone, try Kagami. Maybe she can help you control your emotions better - fencers are good at that usually - and you can help her cut loose on Liberty. Maybe you'll both be better off."

Luka thought about that for a minute or two. He had been enjoying that moment of delight that lit his sisters face when she got to school and spotted Rose. That at least made this worth it. Connecting with his sister again. But Marinette...

"That won’t change one thing," he said quietly.

"what?" She asked, her hand landing on his knee instinctively.

He gave her the best smile he could muster, but it wasn’t very good. He had to fight to keep the tremble from his voice. "I'll miss you cookie."

She let the tremble into her voice. "We can still be friends."

Luka scoffed, "Sure."

"No, I mean it. I'd like to stay friends with you. You're going to do great things and I want to see you do them. I just never wanted to break your heart," Marinette whispered.

"I knew you would," Luka said.

She hung her head. "I'm sorry."

Luka's hand lifted hers to cradle it in his. "No, listen, I knew you would, so you didn’t. I expected it too much so I never got too close."

"The balcony wasn’t too close for you?" She said sarcastically.

"Ok maybe I got too close at one point but you pulled back so I let you," he promised. "We weren't supposed to be together long, so I let you pull away so it wouldn't hurt."

Marinette smiled softly as she let him brush her hand against the edge of his lip gently. Then she pulled it back away from him so he curled his hand back in around his stomach.

"Still hurts a little though, doesn’t it?" She said quietly.

"A little. It’s nice to know it hurts you too though. That means it meant something," he smiled softly.

"It did. You made me a better person. A healthier person. I'll always be grateful for that. So will Alya," Marinette said.

"Ah, Alya," Luka laughed to himself. "She's scary when she’s mad."

"I know right?" She laughed gently, which made Luka laugh back. Then she sighed, trying to keep her small smile from fading. "Hey." She knocked his knee with hers gently. "Are you going to be ok?"

Luka shrugged. "I love you cookie, but I never let myself fall in love with you. I'm gonna be just fine."

"That’s lucky. I love you too Lukey. I wish you all the happiness you deserve," Marinette said.

"You too cookie. You'll always be ma-ma-Marinette to me." Luka stood up and dusted himself down. Her head rose as he moved. He held a hand out to her. "One last dance?"

It seemed like a bad idea, but Marinette had made so many so far that one last one couldn't hurt, right? She took his hand and let him help her to her feet.

"I'd be my honour," she said.

When they came out holding hands, Alya nodded to Nino. Nino pressed a button on the record deck and let the music start. Luka raised his hand and Marinette’s came with it. She turned as she did to end up facing him. At first they kept their distance from one another, but their hands were forever tangled. Her fingers stayed linked within his, so each step brought them closer together. His hand laid itself on her shoulder, and slid its way down to her waist. Marinette swallowed, but wound up pressed against his chest, with her arms around his neck. Their steps slowed to that of a newly wedded couple, and Adrien felt a need to yank his heart out through his throat. Marinette rested her head against his shoulder, aching to rip this ball out of her throat. Kagami knew how he felt all too well. He rested his head against hers. Their bodies moved to the same rhythm, but their hearts beat out of sync. Like compasses beside magnets. Both found it difficult to let go. Saying goodbye seemed to take forever when they didn't want to say it.

"We'll have to let go soon," Luka whispered into her hairline.

She gulped back the ball, making her stomach burn. Very slowly she pulled back. Her hands lingered around his stomach as she pushed herself forward to wrap him up in a hug. Luka blinked back the tears in his eyes as her hands laid gently on his back. He pulled away first. He had to. If he lingered any longer...  
Marinette felt a warm drip on her cheek as Luka placed a kiss delicately on her forehead. She blinked back her own as he fell away. Luka hurried away to the safety of the back room so no one would see him cry. Marinette kept her back to the crowd on the stage as Nino turned off the music. She reached up to her cheeks to wipe away the silent tears. Juleka and Kagami hurried after Luka. Adrien moved to comfort Marinette but Nino pulled him back. Adrien huffed in frustration.

"Why won’t you let me help my friend?!" He demanded.

Nino glanced at Alya. Alya didn’t have time to look back. She was already at Marinette's side to lead her to yet another side room. Adrien tugged away to follow but Nino still refused to let him go.

"Nino!" Adrien huffed, "Nino what’s going on?!"

"Marinette broke up with Luka. Isn’t that obvious?" Nino asked plainly.

Adrien froze. He had no idea what to feel right now. Joy wasn’t good, sympathy was unavoidable, smugness was unsettling, and he didn’t have a clue how to ask Nino what he was supposed to feel. Nino was used to Adrien's pitfalls of home-schooling. He knew when to stop his friend from making a big mistake, even when he didn’t know why it was wrong. He also knew music helped, so he nudged him towards the keyboard.

"You don't have to know what to feel. Just play through it," he encouraged.

Adrien gave him a baffled look, but Nino pushed him towards the keyboard again. he glanced at the rest of the band. Juleka shuffled awkwardly. She wanted to be there for her friend and her brother, but she didn’t want to pick sides. Rose cupped her hand to comfort her. Chloe glanced up at Adrien uncertainly. A growing crowd needed entertainment. Adrien gulped. He raised his hand to the keyboard.

Music was flowing around the room distracting the guests as Alya shut the cloakroom door behind her. Marinette began sniffling heavily into the tissues they found on the desk by the wall. Alya picked up the box and sat on the bed beside Marinette. for a moment the two sat in silence.

"I take it by this that you've told him," Alya said.

Marinette blew her nose hard. "Told who what?"

"Come on Mari, I know when you've got something on your mind. This has been bothering you for a while!" Alya said, trying not to laugh.

Marinette sniffed again, "Well it’s all over now."

Alya held up the box of tissues to Marinette. She took two to wipe away the snot and mascara pouring down her cheeks now. Alya laid an arm around Marinette's shoulders and pulled her closer towards her. Marinette leaned hard against her. Tikki was good company and she meant the world to Marinette, but sometimes she needed a hug from someone a bit bigger than the palm of her hand.

"So what'll we do now girl? Back to chasing Adrien?" Alya asked.

Marinette sniffed, thinking to herself. Her fleeting crush on Adrien – intese as it had been – felt so long ago it was as if she’d dreamed it. she was enjoying having him as a friend. love didn’t even enter her mind when she thought of him anymore. And what would Chat Noir think? Even thinking of the way her partner would react made her wince. That hurt more than anything. Finally, she shook her head.

"No."

Alya pulled back to frown at her in confusion. "No?"

"No," Marinette sniffed a couple more times but her voice was strong enough not to shake again now, "If there’s one thing I've learned from this mess it’s that I have no idea how to love someone the right amount. It’s probably because I've never had to think about what I want and how much love I want, y’know?"

"Honestly? No. I have no idea. I guess Nino does though, because we've worked out how to make our relationship work. I'm lucky to have him," Alya said earnestly.

Marinette stood up to look in the mirror. The make up running down her cheeks was black and dripping. She looked ridiculous. Fortunately, Chloe had a buzzy little friend who gave her some advice that Marinette was grateful for. She knocked on the door and Alya answered.

"What?" Alya asked sharply.

Chloe opened her mouth and then closed it and frowned. "I… I don't know what to say."

Alya looked down at the packet in her hands. "What’s that?"

"Um, make up wipes. I thought maybe-"

Marinette appeared to take the packet from Chloe. For a moment she and Chloe both held onto the packet and looked up at each other. Both seemed unsure what to say, but Marinette could see concern flicker in Chloe’s eyes.

"I..." Chloe glanced down at her pocket and cleared her throat.

Marinette understood. She took the packet and muttered, "Thank you."

Chloe nodded and stepped back. she still seemed uncertain and a little uncomfortable. Alya glanced her up and down for a moment, and then slammed the door shut between them.   
Chloe sighed. she was making progress with Marinette, but she still had a long way to go. she felt something small and warm wriggle in her pocket. a small smile curled on her lips. At least she wasn’t alone anymore. Even if no one else ever liked her, she’d always have one friend to help her.

Meanwhile Marinette moved back to the mirror again. she closed her eyes and sniffed hard. She should have been glad Chloe was trying to change, but the ache in her chest was far too heavy right now. When Alya wasn’t looking, Tikki peeped out of her bag. She scurried up to Marinette’s hand and pulled a wipe from the packet. Tikki pressed it into Marinette's hand to make her open her eyes again.  

"You did the right thing," Tikki promised.

For a moment her little kwamis smile was all she needed. Then Tikki vanished into Marinette's bag again and Marinette took a deep breath. Alya laid a hand on her shoulder and her reflection appeared in the mirror.

"D’you wanna go home girl?" Alya asked.

"No. I'm going to take some time to think about what I want. No boys. I wanna learn about Marinette, and figure out if I like what I find," Marinette said with a shaky kind of determination.

Once again Alya linked her arm around Marinette's shoulders. "Take it from me, you'll like her. Marinette's the best."

…

Luka cleared his throat. "Can we change the first song we're going to play?"

It wasn’t unusual for one of the band members to decide they wanted to play something they hadn’t planned on playing, but now that Marinette and Luka had broken up this was a question that made the others tentative. They liked Marinette. they weren’t willing to deliberately sing something that would make her feel bad.

"What did you have in mind?" Adrien asked uncertainly.

Luka licked his lips, "Have you ever heard of Alexander Rybak?"

Everyone else was dancing when Marinette and Alya came wandering out of the cloakroom. Up on stage they were playing a song that - until now - held very little meaning to Marinette, but the words - even from Rose's mouth - meant everything today.

 _I won't claim it's all cause of you_  
I guess that I played a part  
It's just that I never knew  
I'd fall for you from the start

 _There's a hole in my heart and a picture in a frame_  
Driving me insane  
But the wind and the land and the fire and the rain  
Always stay the same

_I wanna roll with the wind  
Bringing distance to everything_

_I, oh_  
I wanna sit by the fire  
And glance at the pouring rain  
I, I

 _I would never blame you for the heartache_  
I would never blame you for the tears  
I blame my stubborn heart, soul, body  
Every single thing around me stays the same  
No matter what

Luka locked eyes with Marinette as he played. She gulped again. Alya wasn’t about to let Luka ruin the makeup she had just spent ages fixing up. Damage control wouldn’t allow it. Instead, Alya latched onto Marinette's hand and yanked her towards the dance floor.   
Despite her protests, Marinette allowed herself to be danced with. Alya grinned at her until Marinette had to grin back. she ended up laughing at how stubborn her friend was. well, that, and because Kagami was dancing with Nathanael who seemed anxious about it. Nathanael danced anyway because he was a well-mannered gentleman at heart, but when Alya twirled Marinette a little too close to him, she could hear him whispering numbers under his breath to try and remember the moves. Marinette and Kagami shared a small smile, which made Marinette laugh again. it was amazing how quickly good company could ease pain.   
Adrien's chest ached as he watched Marinette twirl away from Alya and bump into Kim who whisked her up into a dance. He slammed the keyboard hard as the song ended and stumbled down the steps grumpily. Nino frowned and hurried after him.

"How you doing dude?" He asked when he finally caught up.

Adrien ran a hand through his head and groaned, "I have no idea what I have to offer a girl."

"What, fame, money and good looks aren’t good enough for you?" Nino smirked.

"Ha ha!" Adrien said sarcastically and rolled his eyes. "They're fine for someone like Chloe. All she wants is something shallow so she can show them off. I want something real. Something like what you and Alya have."

"You'll find it," Nino promised.

"How do you know?" Adrien asked.

"Because I know you dude. First day I met you, you kept your mouth shut to protect Chloe from trouble even though it got you into trouble. You care, dude. You're protective, you’re loyal, and you're kind. Kinda like a dog," Nino said.

Adrien gagged. "A dog?! Seriously?"

"Yeah well when you're here you’re clingy and when you're not it’s like we never met you, so maybe you’re a cat, but I'm telling you, girls dig dogs," Nino shrugged.

Marinette paused beside them to grin, "I'm more of a cat girl."

Alya beamed at Marinette, "See? You’re learning about Marinette already!"

"What do you mean?" Adrien asked.

"Marinette's taking time away from guys to figure out what she wants from one," Alya explained.

"Funny, Adrien's taking time away from girls to figure out what he has to offer one," Nino sniggered.

"Ooh, I wonder if there'll be any overlap. Maybe you two could end up together!" Alya grinned.

"Ha, yeah right, could you imagine?" Marinette snorted.

Alya shrugged. "I don’t know, you could be a cute couple. Not that it matters anyway, you're both staying single for a while right?"

"Yeah," Marinette said.

"Of course," Adrien nodded.

Nino turned to the table behind them to ladle punch into cups and handed them out to let Alya make a toast.

"To being single, learning about yourselves, and how to make someone else happy!" Alya beamed.

Marinette rolled his eyes but Nino and the others raised their paper cups to pretend to clink them together to echo his toast.

"Super subtle babe," Nino muttered.

Alya smiled at him. The realisation from earlier came back to her and she felt a swell of affection in her chest. "Hey, I love you y’know."

"I love you too," Nino smiled.

Meanwhile Marinette and Adrien glanced at each other and looked quickly away when they caught each other’s eye. They could hide their slight smiles at the idea of them as a couple, but they couldn’t hide the blush it gave them. Tikki grinned at Plagg. Plagg rolled his eyes.  
The band struck up again without Adrien to be there on keyboard, and Alya gasped with delight at the sudden burst of music.

"Hey, let's go dance!" Alya declared.

The eruption of laughter as Alya dragged Nino onto the dance floor lit the room. They swept as many people up as they possibly could - Nino, Mylene, Kim, Alix included - and pulled all of them into dance as the band packed away and the DJ started instead.

"Chloe! Hey Chloe! Wanna dance with us?!" Marinette called.

Alya yanked her arm back and hissed, "What are you doing girl?"

"Come on Al, look what she put together. She’s trying to be better, shouldn't we at least give her the benefit of the doubt? Wouldn’t Ladybug?" Marinette argued quietly.

"Let her dance too," Nino urged in agreement.

Alya rolled her eyes. " _fine_."

Chloe hesitated when Marinette called her again. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to be friends with them, or if they wanted to be friends with her or were just being nice. but when they all urged her to come anyway, even Adrien, she allowed herself to swallow her pride and be dragged into their group. The music started booming, and all five of them bumped off of each other, howling with laughter. Even Chloe was beaming.

For now at least, they were free from any kind of pain.

Sometimes that’s all you need to make you happy. Good friends, good music, and five minutes where you can look like an idiot without caring who sees. None of them had any idea where they were going from here, but none of them cared.

They were far too busy being happy.


End file.
